Animorphs 2020: The Invasion
by WritingZard
Summary: A reboot of Animorphs for an older, modern audience. Five teenagers stumble into an intergalactic war. Hostile aliens wish to enslave every human on the planet. They have no plan, no allies, but they have one single, powerful weapon. They can morph.
1. Chapter 1 - The Dipshits

My name is Jake.

That's it. Jake. Jake to you, Jake to my friends. Just Jake.

Well, that's not entirely true. My friends know my full name. They know what places I'm really referencing, what city we really live in. The schools, our homes, the restaurants. But, I can trust them. They've been with me since Day 1. I can't trust you. Because, you see, you might be one of them. You might try to kill me. Or, worse, enslave me.

So, yeah. Just Jake, to you. And when I say where all this took place, and the names of the people involved, understand that those are all fake. Made-up. The ones you find on a map, or online, are the same ones I found and stole the names of. You won't find us. Or our families.

I used to be normal. I went to school, did homework. Hung out with my best friend, Marco. Competed with my brother, Tom. Went to school with my cousins, Rachel and Jordan. Ignored Tobias, like the geek he was. I used to steal looks at Cassie whenever she'd walked by. Normal, stupid, high school stuff.

The key phrase there is, used to be. Now, I'm the de facto leader of a team of insurgents, and I'm told, Earth's only hope for survival. I've been fighting in a secret war for years now, against an alien invasion straight out of a made-for-TV horror movie. But these aren't like what you'd picture when you think of aliens attacking Earth. They're not giant, CGI-looking mongoloids traipsing through the ruins of Los Angeles firing ray guns at everyone.

Though, to be fair, they do make use of giant, CGI-looking mongoloids. And ray guns. But, that's their thing. They use them. You see, like all hidden alien invaders, these guys practice mind control.

I'm sorry. I sound like a crazy person.

Anyways.

I'm logging this so people will know the truth. Maybe, one day, our stories will get out, and humanity will know what really happened, when this war finally ends. Maybe my family will see it. Maybe then, they'll know what really happened to Tom. Maybe, hopefully, Rachel and I will be able to tell them in-person, and they won't hear it from a recording.

It's a nice thought, at least.

So. Let's start from the beginning. Believe it or not, this all began with a basketball game.

_The_ game. It was the north state championship match. My team, the Greenhill Spartans, went up against the Lockheed Hurricanes. And we didn't do so well. We lost, in fact. We lost because three of our team came down with the flu, and to keep five players on the court, Coach Chapman had to make do with Tobias.

Tobias the Terrible.

We called him that because he was terrible.

No hand-eye coordination. Couldn't catch a ball or make a shot if you paid him to. Or threatened him, something Coach did a lot. Tobias kept his spot on the team by being tall and lanky, big enough to block shots from the more ludicrously sized players. This was the sole reason Coach let him stay, and normally, Tobias only hit the court so he could wave his arms around and jump in front of people like a fool. Expecting Tobias to score points was like expecting snow in the Sahara.

So, we lost. Badly. Tempers were high. That's a good excuse for why Tom, Marco, and I spent half an hour drowning Tobias, right? Sure. Like I said. High school stuff.

Anyway, we gave Tobias his just, swirlie deserts, changed, and went back out into the parking lot to link up with everyone. My family was there. My mom, the District Attorney. Dad, a doctor. My uncle Paul, single dad and local cop. They were all grouped together with other parents and their own friends, talking and gossiping. We, the triumphant bullies, went around to the rest of the team to gloat.

"Did he cry?"

"Like a baby!"

It was all fun and games and fist bumps until Rachel and Jordan found out. I felt a hand grab my shoulder and turn me around, and found both of my cousins glaring at me. Worse, Cassie, Rachel's best friend, was standing just behind her, arms crossed and frowning.

I liked Cassie. Not, you know, _liked_ Cassie, but we got along pretty well.

"You guys are the worst." Rachel told me. Jordan nodded in agreement. Rachel and Jordan were cut from the same mold. They could almost be mistaken for twins, but Jordan was about half an inch shorter than Rachel. This gave her an edge over Rachel on the city gymnastics team, something that continually irked Rachel. Both had blonde hair, blue eyes, and thought they could boss Tom and I around.

Marco was a short, dark-haired Latino kid who likes to think he's smart. Sometimes, I wondered. Like when he said, "He earned it, Rachel."

"How?" Jordan demanded. She was a year younger than the rest of us, but just as intense as her sister. "What did he do?"

"Sucked." Tom said.

"Horse nads." Marco added.

"He cost us the game, guys." I said.

"And you think that makes what you did okay, Jake?" Cassie asked me. Cassie was black, and wore her hair short most of the time. Her family had a farm just outside of town, with cows and chickens and such. She sometimes came to school in overalls that smelled like manure.

I looked at Marco. Marco looked at Tom. Tom looked at me. I nodded. "Yeah, kinda."

Rachel threw up her hands. "Unbelievable."

"Excuse me."

A small, middle-aged woman approached us. She wore a small, black cap and carried a leather purse. The woman peered through her glasses at us and said, "I'm sorry to bother you, but, are you friends of Tobias?"

"No," Tom told her.

"Oh. Okay." The woman turned to leave. "I'll leave you all alone, then."

"Wait," Jordan said. The woman turned back around. "Why do you ask?"

The woman shrugged. "I one of you say his name, so I made an assumption. I apologize."

"There's no need for that," said Cassie. "Are you looking for Tobias?"

"Yes. I'm his grandmother," the woman replied. "I've been waiting for some time for him to come outside so I can take him home, but I haven't seen him yet. If you see him," she continued, "could you tell him I'm waiting in the car?"

"Absolutely!" Rachel said. "We'll go find him right now."

"We will?" Marco said.

"Yep," Jordan told him. "We will."

"Thank you all so much." Tobias' grandmother gave us all a small smile in appreciation. She pointed across the parking lot. "I'm parked right under that lamp post."

"We won't forget," Cassie assured her. The woman beamed, then headed out towards her car.

"Okay," Rachel said. "Let's do it."

"Good luck," Tom told us.

"Wait, you're not coming?"

"No, Jordan, I'm not." Tom started walking away. "You'll find him whimpering in the locker room."

"And if we don't?"

"Then it's still not my problem, Rachel."

"I'm with Tom," Marco said. "See you guys around."

Cassie looked at me. "And you, Jake?"

Her dark eyes watched mine as they registered her questioning gaze, and Rachel and Jordan's silent glares. Marco smirked as I looked to him. Tom quietly watched me as I looked back at Cassie.

If it had just been Rachel and Jordan asking, I'd have told them both to kick rocks. After all, they only think they're my keepers. But, for some reason, the thought of saying no to Cassie made me uncomfortable. She didn't glare at me like my cousins did. She just calmly waited for my answer.

"No. I'll help you guys find him. Let's look inside."

Tom rolled his eyes and made his exit. Marco moved to follow him, but I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him back. "You're coming, too."

Marco slapped my hand away. "Why?"

"Because I have to go." I told him.

"Because it's the right thing to do," Cassie said.

"Because this is your fault, and Jake's." Jordan added.

"Because," Rachel said sweetly, "I'll beat your ass in front of God and everybody if you don't."

Marco jerked his thumb at Rachel. "Daenerys wins."

"Wait, what did you call me?"

"It's a compliment, I promise."

"Oh." Rachel smiled savagely. "Neat."

"I dunno," Jordan said. "I think she's more Arya."

"Guys?" I said. "Focus, please."

"I am Daenerys Stormborn, of -"

"Rachel?" Cassie said. "Shush."

We went back into the auditorium and made our way to the guy's locker rooms. Rachel grinned. "Forbidden territory." Jordan and Marco snickered. Cassie rolled her eyes and went inside. I followed her.

"Tobias?"

No answer. Marco shoved past us and went to check the toilets. He returned quickly. "He's not here."

Cassie looked down at the floor. "There's water everywhere. Look." She pointed. "There's a trail to the lockers."

Rachel and Jordan joined us. "Tobias must've changed out of his wet clothes," I said.

Marco snorted. "Wouldn't you?"

"So, he dried off," Rachel said, "changed, and then left. But didn't head back outside? Why?"

We all sort of shrugged. "Embarrassment?" Jordan guessed.

"Humiliation." Cassie corrected. She gave Marco and I a disapproving look. I looked away.

Rachel nodded at a door on the far wall. "Where does that go to?"

"Fire escape." Marco and I both said. Marco pointed at the sign by the door.

"Could he have left that way?" I asked him.

Marco shrugged. "Maybe. It's supposed to trigger an alarm if it's opened, but it doesn't."

Rachel gave him a look. "How do you know?"

"I opened it once."

"Of course you did."

"So maybe he went out the back way, and his grandmother just missed him," I said. "He went around, out of sight. I bet he already found her, and now he's halfway home. Mission accomplished."

Cassie went to the door and opened it. Sure enough, no alarm sounded. She poked her head outside, then looked back at us. "Footprints."

Marco groaned. Rachel silenced him with a glare. "Where do they go?" she asked Cassie.

"Not out to the parking lot," Cassie replied. "Towards Deathburg."

Now I groaned. Deathburg was the local nickname for the abandoned construction site behind the school. Way back in the day, someone had tried to put up a shopping mall, but ran out of funding halfway through and left what they'd already built to rot. It was a massive site almost twice the size of the school. Every so often, someone would make a big stink trying to get it all torn down, but nothing ever came of their efforts.

Nowadays, the only people that wanted anything to do with it were the local junkies, or bored kids looking for something to do. And apparently, Tobias.

Marco shook his head. "Nope. Not going to Deathburg."

"Yes," Rachel said, "you are going to Deathburg."

"Marco," I said, "this is kind of our fault."

"Okay, yeah, we're dicks, I get that," Marco said to me. "But my guilt and empathy stops short of tracking down Tobias in Deathburg. If he wants to find solace with the crackheads, that's his business."

Cassie returned to the group. "So, what do we do?"

"You guys do what you want," Rachel said. "I'm going after him." She paused only to give Marco the finger before heading out the door. It slammed shut behind her.

Cassie sighed. "I should go with her."

"Why?"

"She might stab someone." Cassie followed Rachel.

I looked over at Jordan. "Could you go grab Uncle Paul? He could probably do this better than we could."

"Dad said he'd shoot us himself if he ever found out we ever went into Deathburg." Jordan sighed. "Rachel will be grounded until she's forty." She left the locker room to go find her dad. Marco tried to follow her, but I pulled him back.

"Jake," Marco said, "Tom was right. This isn't our problem."

"Marco," I told him, "If you let Rachel run off and do something you were too scared to, she will never let you live it down."

Marco stopped to give that some thought. While he was thinking, I went after Rachel and Cassie. After a few moments, Marco joined me.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Andalite

If Deathburg looked exactly like the place a serial killer would pick to turn into a murder-house, it's because it _was_ the place a serial killer had turned into a murder-house. Back when my parents had been my age, some sick fuck had gone around picking up people's kids, and leaving their bodies in Deathburg for the cops to find. The police rounded up suspects, but no one had ever been convicted for the murders. The local press called the guy the Construction Killer, and as far as anyone knew, he was still at large.

I'm not saying that Marco and I expected some crazy dude with an axe to jump out and carve us up into bite-sized pieces, but the thought had crossed both our minds. Inside the half-built mall, at night, where it got as dark as a cave, with any and all light to see with coming from our phones, anything at all could come out at us. And yet, there we were, trying to track down my cousin, her best friend, and someone we didn't even like that much.

So, yeah. We were on edge.

"Jake."

I looked over at Marco. "What? What is it?"

Marco poked his head into a dark room. "Who do you think would win in a fight, between Batman and Spider-Man?"

That...was a good question. I moved past him to check another, larger room that could have been a food court. After some thought I said, "Batman."

Marco snorted. "No."

"Two words," I told him. "Body armor. Parker's webs wouldn't stick to his armor."

"Jake," Marco replied, "His webs stick to _Iron Man's_ armor."

No one was in the food court. We moved on. "That's Iron Man. This is Batman."

Marco walked behind me. "Are you going to try and tell me that Bruce Wayne has better armor than Tony Stark?"

I thought some more. "No. I guess not. But Bats is crafty."

"Spidey-Sense."

"Yeah," I said, "but Parker's been known to ignore it."

We argued some more, more to take our minds off of the idea of painful, violent death than anything. But the longer we spent looking for Tobias, Rachel, and Cassie, the more nervous we got. Eventually, we just stopped talking. Until…

"Marco. I see lights."

"You do?"

He came around the corner behind me. I pointed ahead. There was a faint, blue glow emanating from down the hallway in front of us, shining around a doorway at the end. I started towards it. Marco reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder.

"Are you insane?"

I shook his hand off. "What?"

"You don't know what that is!" he whispered at me.

"It's light," I whispered back. "Light means people."

"Jake?"

"Yeah?"

"Who on Earth carries blue light with them?!" Marco hissed.

I shrugged. Marco rolled his eyes and shut off his phone's light. He pointed at mine. I stowed it in my pocket. Wordlessly, we crept up to the doorway, and peaked around it.

I knew what I was looking at instantly. Which, in hindsight, is kind of funny. I'd never laid eyes on one before, but I knew what I saw. And, even funnier, I was more scared of what Marco would say if I voiced what we were seeing, than I actually was of what was right in front of us.

Fortunately, Marco had never been one to keep his mouth shut.

"...That's a spaceship, isn't it?"

"Yep."

Marco quietly pinched himself. Then, he pinched me. I slapped his hand away.

"So...now what?" Marco asked me.

"Do you see anybody?" As an afterthought, I added, "Or any thing?"

"Nada."

"Fine." I walked out into the room. This must have been intended to be the main gathering area of the mall. You know how some of them have a massive, central area with a stage, for little shows or shitty, local bands that think they're the next Ramones or something? Imagine that, but blown to Hell and back, with a giant hole in the ceiling, and a spaceship that looked like a blue, chrome scorpion, with glowing blue eyes and missing its claws and legs, and you'll get a good idea about what we were dealing with.

Marco followed me. "How did this even get here?"

I pointed up at the ceiling. "You think it crashed?"

"Must have. It looks damaged." Indeed, there was a long, black burn along the side of the ship. Marco crossed his arms. "But, when? No way someone misses this thing falling from the sky. Where are the cops? And the first responders?"

"Come to think of it," I said, "where's the fire?"

"Come again?"

"Assuming it came from space," I said, "it would have hit Deathburg burning hot from entering the atmosphere." I gave Marco a look. "Right?"

"Hell if I know," Marco said. "I'm taking anatomy, not physics."

"Jake!"

Marco and I turned around. Rachel, Cassie, and a tall, lanky kid with brown, messy hair came out from the hallway. As a group, they all turned their heads away from us, and took in the spaceship.

The kid was Tobias. I gave him a little wave. He waved back, still staring at the ship. "What is that?"

"A spaceship."

Rachel actually laughed. "Sure. Okay."

"No, seriously," Tobias said, "what the hell is -"

The burned side of the ship suddenly opened. A door rose up towards the ruined ceiling, like the door of a Lamborghini. The soft blue light suddenly grew harsh, so bright that we all had to shield our eyes against it. I could just barely make out a shadow moving from the back of the ship. Something was coming out.

"Run!" I shouted.

Marco was the quickest. He turned around and made it two steps before an actual, honest-to-God laser beam flew past his shoulder and burned a hole in the wall in front of him.

[Freeze!]

I stopped. We all stopped. Marco raises his hands in the air. We all followed his example, save one. Rachel shook her head, not in defiance, but like a dog trying to dislodge a burr from its ear. "Did you guys hear -"

[Do not speak.]

I blinked in confusion. I heard someone talking, but...not really. I heard speech, and understood it, but it was like I was hearing something else, in addition to the words. But I couldn't figure out what.

_Clop-clop. Clop-clop._

That was a new sound. I couldn't identify that, either. But I saw Carrie's eyes widen. She whispered something to herself. It sounded like the word, "hooves."

[Do not speak.] the voice said. [I will not ask again.]

I glared at Cassie. She shut up. And then, the alien revealed itself.

It resembled a human man, from the waist up. And that was where the similarities ended. On top of its head were two tentacle-things, each ending in a large, glaring green eye. The...stalks? The eye stalks turned this way and that, taking in their surroundings. Two more eyes stared at us directly, over two slits that could have been nostrils if you squinted. For reasons only God could know, the alien did not possess a mouth. Its waist ended in a horse's body, centaur-style, with four powerful legs ending in hooves.

Two things drew my eyes, though. First, instead of a horse tail, it had a tail longer than the rest of its body, one that ended in a sharp, boney blade. And second, in a weak pair of arms ending in seven-fingered hands, it carried a pistol straight out of science fiction. It held its tail down and low to the ground, blade pointed up. It kept the pistol facing towards us.

Also, the entirety of the alien's body was covered in short, blue fur.

The alien pointed its pistol at me. [Name.]

Again, the voice-that-was-not-a-voice. I gulped. "J-Jake."

The pistol moved to Rachel. [And you?]

"Rachel."

One by one, we gave him our names. This seemed to frustrate him. The voice got angrier. [No!] it said. [You're real names! Your call signs!]

We looked at each other. Tobias said, "I'm sorry, but we -"

The pistol fired. Tobias flinched as the beam went between his legs. He didn't move, though. I was impressed. If I'd been him, I'd have dropped to my knees and cried. With no sense of shame.

[Do you know who I am, Yeerk?]

Tobias shook his head. "What's a Yeerk?" Rachel asked.

[Do not toy with me! I am Prince Elfangor! I -]

Suddenly, the alien dropped to its knees. (His? Did Prince refer to a male of his species? Did I care?) And we saw that Prince Elfangor was injured. Like the spaceship, he had a long, black burn across his side. Unlike his spaceship, he was bleeding. Green blood oozed slowly from his wound.

Cassie took a step forward. The pistol came up. She stopped.

"You're hurt," Rachel said.

"Please, let us help you," Cassie said to Elfangor. "We can bandage you up, at least." Cassie's parents were both veterinarians, and she helps her dad run a non-profit clinic for injured, wild animals. She was more than capable of patching Elfangor up, and she'd rip apart her own shirt if she had to.

Some of us had other ideas. "Let's bail," Marco said.

"I'm with Marco," Tobias said.

Marco blinked. "That's a shock."

"Don't be dicks." A Rachel line, from Cassie. That made up my mind, if nothing else. I stepped up next to Cassie. Elfangor swung his pistol from Cassie to me. We all tensed. But he didn't shoot us.

"Please," Cassie begged.

Elfangor glared at her. [Why should I trust you?]

Cassie said nothing. Everyone else stayed silent. Finally, I said, "Because, Prince Elfangor, you'll die if you don't."

[There are things in this galaxy worse than death, "Jake."]

"We mean you no harm," Rachel said. "Honest."

"Look, dude," Marco added. "If you hadn't threatened to shoot us if we moved, we'd have left you as far behind us as we could put you."

"Yeah." Tobias jerked his thumb at Marco. "He was halfway to the door before the rest of us could blink."

"Oh, fuck you, Tobias."

[Enough.] Elfangor lowered his gun. [Tend to my wounds, if you wish. I'll die before you can turn me, either way.]

I almost asked him what he meant, but Cassie was at his side before I could. "I won't let that happen," she said to Elfangor. Rachel joined her. Elfangor's eye stalks locked eyes with Cassie, while the main eyes watched Rachel. But, Elfangor said nothing.

Without a word, Cassie removed her shirt, and Rachel handed over her own. Tobias removed his and offered Cassie a pocket knife. I tossed Rachel my shirt and, to even his own surprise, Marco gave Cassie his shirt. After a few minutes, Cassie had three, wadded-up shirts pressed into Elfangor's wounds, with two more sliced up and woven into a makeshift sling to hold the shirts in place.

[Thank you.] Elfangor said. [All of you. Your kindness is...unexpected.]

"You're welcome," said Marco.

[What does your species call itself?]

"Humans," Tobias said. "Or humanity."

[Then, know that you humans have brought me peace.] Elfangor shifted, and he almost seemed to relax. [If the rest of your kind is like you, maybe your world will survive what is coming.]

"What?" I said. "What's coming? Who are you? What are you?"

[I am one of the Andalites. My name is Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. I am the commander of the Sixty-Fourth War Fleet.] All four of Elfangor's eyes dropped to the ground. [Former commander. My fleet was destroyed defending the galaxy from annihilation, in orbit above your world.]

"Fighting, whatever it was you called us?" Rachel, despite the situation, was modestly covering herself. "'Yeerks?'"

[Yes.]

"What are Yeerks?" Cassie asked.

[The Yeerks are a race of spacefaring conquerors.] Elfangor told us. [They have destroyed entire populations of peaceful species. The Hork-Bajir. The Taxxons. And now, they have come to destroy you.]


	3. Chapter 3 - The Yeerks

[They have come to destroy you.]

Six words etched into my brain like text on a gravestone. Six words of truth that could not be disputed. None of us scoffed or argued. No one accused Elfangor of lying, or being mistaken. He knew that a great, terrible evil had come to our world, that we were being attacked by an evil so vile his people had laid down their lives to stop it. And now they were dead. And humanity was next.

"Okay," I finally said, breaking a long moment of silence. "What do we do?"

"What exactly are we dealing with?" Rachel asked.

"Motherships and laser beams," Marco said with a forced smile.

[You are not wrong.]

"Seriously?"

[The Yeerks are not like you and I] Elfangor said. [They possess starships and weapons, but prefer not to use them. The Yeerks do not conquer worlds. They conquer races.]

"How?" Tobias asked.

[They get inside of their victim's heads, and seize control over their minds. They…] Elfangor closed all four of his eyes. [It may be better if I just show you.]

FLASH!

Suddenly, I wasn't there anymore. At Deathburg, I mean. I was somewhere else. Somewhere rocky and purple, with a purple sky and acid-green clouds. And weird, three-legged, man-sized monkeys. They were congregating around a lake, colored like lead.

[They started here. Planet Y7484, in the Trilenion system. We originally thought it was only inhabited by a simple race of creatures called the Gedd. We were wrong.]

One of the Gedd waded out into the lake, and calmly thrust its head under the water. My stomach lurched as my point of view suddenly changed, moving out over the Gedd and underneath the surface of the lake. I expected to see nothing but a simian alien taking a swim, so I was surprised to find a massive school of fish converging on the Gedd.

No, not fish. They were…

"Slugs?"

Rachel's voice. There, but not there, like Elfangor's. And, she wasn't wrong. They looked a great deal like slugs, except they were more flat, and they had two sets of fins. They were all just under a foot long.

I watched as, from the Gedd's left ear, one of the slugs came slithering out like a snake emerging from its hole. And, on the opposite side of its head, all of the slugs were pushing and jostling each other to get into the second ear! Before the first one was even completely free, another one had started shoving its way through the opposite ear canal.

After the second slug was all the way inside the Gedd's head, it stood up. Just as calmly as it had stuck it's face into the water. And then, it waded past the other members of its group, who were also submerging themselves in the lake.

[No one knows when the Yeerks first seized control over the Gedd. The Yeerks claimed that their control over the Gedd was symbiotic, that the Gedd were too simple to survive without Yeerk influence. We believed them.]

The Gedd all looked up as a spaceship, similar to Elfangor's but much larger, went speeding over their heads and landed neatly on the lake shore. A hatch opened on the side, and three of Elfangor's species, the Andalites, walked out.

One of them stepped out in front of the trio. He was built like a truck, with a heavily muscled torso and the lower body of a Budweiser Clydesdale. He held his tail lowered and to his left side, as did his companions. But, unlike the others, who were fiddling with what resembled oversized iPad, he had a laser pistol holstered on his right leg, and a bandoleer of some sort strapped across his chest. He was clearly a warrior.

[In their natural state, Yeerks are blind, and reliant on their Yeerk pools. The strongest among them compete for Gedd hosts, for no other reason than to see their world through the Gedd's eyes. But, they must return to their pools every few rotations, or they will wither and die inside of their host bodies. It is a cruel existence for a sentient species. We, the Andalites, pitied them, and offered to show the Yeerks the stars.]

The Gedd approached the Andalites. One of the Gedd approached the Andalite warrior, and raised cupped hands up to him. In its hands lay a motionless Yeerk. The Andalite took the Yeerk, gently, and without hesitation, raised the Yeerk up to the side of his head and allowed the Yeerk to enter him.

[Our scientists desired to study the Yeerks, and the Yeerks desired interstellar travel. A deal was arranged, and a volunteer was found. We offered one of our champions to the Yeerks in the name of mutual friendship and discovery. We were fools.]

Without warning, the Andalite drew his weapon and fired upon the others. Their bodies dissolved into ash the second the laser hit them. As if that was a signal, the Gedd rushed past the Andalite and into the ship. There were sounds of a struggle from inside, and then silence. The Gedd returned a few minutes later, some of them bloodied. Others were bringing out glass containers on carts.

[We were told that a host retains control over their bodies and actions. In truth, the Yeerk completely and totally dominates the host. They become prisoners in their own minds while the Yeerk plunders their memory centers, learning to walk as they walk, talk as they talk. And the host is powerless to stop them. We call Yeerk-infested sentients Controllers.]

The Gedd took the containers down to the lake, and filled them with water from the lake. The Andalite-Controller watched as the Gedds wheeled the containers back aboard the ship, each one of them filled to the brim with water and Yeerks. The Andalite and the Gedds boarded the ship, and flew off into the sky.

[They are led by the Council of Thirteen. One of their number, a Yeerk called Visser Three, organized an attack upon our people, and made off with a Z-capable ship. We tracked him and his supporters to a nearby solar system.]

FLASH!

Now I was in space, overlooking a fierce battle over a khaki-colored planet. Andalite ships were fighting, no joke, actual flying saucers. It looked like they were losing.

[The Skrit Na are known throughout the galaxy for visiting inhabited planets, and abducting their denizens for study. Some of them are released on their homeworlds, while others are taken back to zoos on their colony worlds. They had abducted an entire pool of Yeerks. The Yeerks remembered, and Visser Three went to retrieve his people. By the time our warriors found him, Visser Three and the Yeerks had infested the entire colony and the Skrit Na battle fleet that came to their rescue. We were soundly beaten, and forced to retreat, as Visser Three scanned Skrit Na records and starcharts and planned his next move.]

FLASH!

Another battle, this one over a green, rocky world covered in bands of blue clouds. Again, the Andalites were losing.

[The next to fall were the Hork-Bajir. They were a simple, primitive people, but strong and powerful. The Yeerks found them, and turned the entire race into their foot soldiers. There has not been a Hork-Bajir born outside of captivity in over forty cycles.

And once the Yeerks had their ships and army…]

One more, final battle, over a violet world with green clouds. The Yeerk homeworld.

[Visser Three broke our blockade, routed our ground forces, and took each and every Yeerk off of their homeworld to conquer the galaxy.]

The vision faded. I found myself back in Deathburg, standing with Tobias and my friends. Rachel had tears running down her face. I felt wetness on my cheeks, and realized I did, too.

Finally, someone spoke. "How many?" Cassie asked.

Elfangor looked at her. [We know of three races the Yeerks have taken. Yours will be the fourth.]

"We have to tell someone!" Marco said. "We can go to the cops, the media…"

"Who'd believe us?" Tobias asked him. "Our witness is dying."

"We can take his body -"

"Marco!" Rachel shouted.

[Your attitude is admirable, Marco] Elfangor told him. [But, unfortunately, the Yeerks will be here at any moment to remove all trace of me, and my ship. Once they have chased my brothers out of orbit, they will scour this world of all that remains from our battle, and seize any witnesses they find. Going to your authorities will only endanger you.]

I remember wanting to walk away. To do an abrupt about-face, forward-march, and just fuck off on back to school. Find Tom and my parents, go home, go to sleep, and let whatever happened with us and the Yeerks and the Andalites and all the bullshit that followed, happen. We all should have. But, we didn't move. Something kept us there. Something told us we had to stay with him until the end.

And it was probably that same something that made me say, "No."

All four of Elfangor's eyes locked with mine. [No?]

"No," I repeated. "We can't let this just happen. We have to do something. Tell us what we can do."

"Yeah," Marco said, "tell us how to fight against evil space slugs so we can all run _towards_ our impending deaths instead of away. Are you insane, Jake?"

"We have to do something," Rachel said. "We can't just roll over and let these Yeerks do what they want with us. We have to stop them." Cassie nodded. Tobias stayed silent, watching the Andalite.

Elfangor was silent for a long, long moment. Until he said, [There is a blue box in my ship. And a disk. Retrieve them for me, please. Quickly.]

I started walking towards his ship. "Jake..." Marco warned. I ignored him and went inside.

The first thing I noticed was that the floor was covered in blue grass. The second thing was that there was a cockpit with no chair. That was weird.

But, there was a small area to the back that served as a cabin. Inside there was a small shelf containing various, alien items. One of those items was a blue box about the size of my head. I immediately grabbed it. Next to the box was what could only be the disk Elfangor mentioned, an inch-thick, circular piece of metal as wide as my hand with a small hole going through the center. I snatched that, too, and turned to leave.

But, something else caught my eye. It was a holographic projector, straight out of a science fiction movie, perched on top of the shelf, and displaying four Andalites. One of them was Elfangor, with his arm draped over the shoulder of another, smaller Andalite. The other two appeared older, and stood behind them both. I studied the image for a moment, and then went back outside.

I knelt next to Elfangor and passed him the blue box. "That image inside, on your shelf. Is…is that your family?"

[Yes.]

"I'm sorry."

[Thank you. You…] Elfangor sighed. [My parents will never know what happened to me. Or Aximili.]

"Who?" Cassie asked.

[My brother. He was my wingmate. He insisted. He wanted to make sure I was safe.] Elfangor hung his head. [His ship went down shortly before mine, after he moved between me and the fighter behind me. Damned, foolish boy.]

I held up the disk. "What's this?"

[My personal logbook.] he replied. [The commanders of our fleets keep detailed records of our travels, everything we discover about new planets and races. As well as our enemies. Everything you will need to know about my people, and the Yeerks, you will find on the disk.]

"Very Star Trek," Tobias commented.

Marco pointed at the box. "What's that for?"

[This] Elfangor answered, [is our greatest weapon. It has allowed us to get ahead of the Yeerks, to spy on them and learn their plans and movements. It gives our warriors the power to morph.]

"Morph?" Rachel echoed. She actually laughed. "Like, what? The Power Rangers?"

[If your Power Rangers can change their forms into those of the enemy, then yes.]

"Wait," Cassie said. "Change our forms? How? Into what?"

[Any living creature] Elfangor replied. [Simply place your hand upon the animal, or being, concentrate upon their shape, and then later, summon that form into your mind. And you will morph into them.]

"That's…" Rachel grinned. "That's actually very, very cool."

"You," Marco told her, "of all people, would be excited about this."

"Sure." Rachel said. "Fighting aliens, saving the world, and we get superpowers? Let's do it."

Tobias nodded. "I wouldn't put it like that, but Rachel is right. Someone has to do something. If not us, who will?"

Marco raised his hand. "I'm against getting turned into a pile of ash. Not looking to get Thanos'ed, thanks."

[Jake?]

Elfangor was looking at me. So was everyone else.

"I -"

Suddenly, there was green light everywhere. It was coming from above us. We all looked up, and saw one of the flying saucers from Elfangor's visions. The light moved, and focused on Elfangor.

[They're here.]

"Who?"

[Yeerks.] He said. And even through telepathy, there was no missing the hatred in his voice. [They've found me.]


	4. Chapter 4 - The Visser

[You're running out of time!] Elfangor said to me. [Choose now. Yes, or no?]

"Yes!"

[Then place your hand upon the box.] Elfangor said. [Hurry!]

One by one, we all reached out. Rachel was first. Then me, then Tobias, and finally, Marco and Cassie. Three pale, white hands, and two darker ones, alongside Elfangor's smaller, blue hands. He closed his eyes, and I felt a tingle of energy shoot up my arm. I recoiled, like I had been shocked. We all stepped back from Elfangor, out of the light. He watched us move away.

[Go] Elfangor said. [Leave this place, and fight for your people!]

"Let's go, guys," I heard myself say. But, I made no move to leave. And the others, even Marco, stayed with me.

The Andalite suddenly raised all four of his eyes to the saucer. His tail twitched. [He is here.]

"Who?"

[Our most hated enemy] Elfangor answered. [Visser Three!]

"Visser Three?" I repeated. "Was he who you were talking about earlier?"

"What's a Visser?" Marco asked. "_Who_ is a Visser?"

[Visser Three is the leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth.] Elfangor explained. [It was he who stole the body of the Andalite volunteer and started this bloody war. You must flee. Now!]

"Let's go, guys!" I said again.

"No!" Rachel shouted. "Jake, we can't just leave him!" Cassie nodded in agreement. I looked over at Marco. He was as pale as a sheet, but he didn't move, either. Tobias looked from Rachel to me, waiting for one of us to make a call.

A circle of light appeared on the underside of the flying saucer. [If you insist on staying] Elfangor said to us, [you need to hide. The fight for this world is lost without you!]

We went and hid behind the doorway Marco and I had come through. I held the disk tight as we retreated. Behind us, Elfangor hid the blue box underneath himself.

From either side of the door, we watched, Cassie and Tobias on one side, and the rest of us on the other, as what appeared to be an demon from Hell dropped slowly from beneath the alien ship.

Seven feet tall! A torso that would have put the greatest bodybuilder to shame. Muscular legs that ended in dinosaur feet, each sporting three wicked-looking talons. A serpentine neck held a beaked, bird-like head. Three horns curved up and forward from the top of the creature's head. And, growing from the wrists, elbows, and knees were sharpened blades each as long and wide as my hand.

[Hork-Bajir.]

I blinked. Elfangor was still talking to us. Trying to explain what we were up against. [Hork-Bajir were once a peaceful, arboreal species] Elfangor told us. [But, they are now all slaves of the Yeerk Empire. They are used as Yeerk shock troops. Many Hork-Bajir have been lost in our war, though. Only the most skilled and loyal Yeerks are given Hork-Bajir hosts.]

The Hork-Bajir rolled its shoulders and stalked around the Andalite, obviously searching for trouble. We hid back behind the doorway as it passed it by. The Hork-Bajir went back over to Elfangor and stared down at him, well out of reach of his tail. It chirped like a songbird, and waved up at the ship.

Two more Hork-Bajir dropped down. Between the two I could see the silhouettes of three other bodies. When they hit the ground, the light shut off from around them.

Marco elbowed me and pointed. There were two humans standing out in the open. One was a short, middle-aged man that could have been someone's grandfather. The other could have been his grandaughter, a young, pretty blonde girl around my age.

[The Yeerks were here long before we caught wind of them. They have already found hosts from among you] Elfangor told us. [Trust none of your people, for they may be the enemy.]

Marco elbowed me again, and pointed between the first Hork-Bajir and the second two. I saw that the first had sky-blue bands around his forearms, almost white under the light from the alien ships. The other two did not.

And standing between the two humans was…another Andalite.

[Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.]

The voice boomed in our minds. It hurt. A lot. Cassie sat back away from the door, clutching her head. I bit down on my lower lip to stop myself from screaming.

"What was that?!" Marco gasped.

"Is that Visser Three?" Tobias asked.

"We can hear his thoughts!" Rachel whispered frantically. "Can he hear ours?"

"If he can, we're so dead I don't even want to think about it."

[He cannot hear your thoughts] Elfangor told us. [So long as you do not wish him to. The Visser is broadcasting his thoughts for all to hear. This is a moment of triumph for him. He is gloating.]

[You look tired, Elfangor] Visser Three said to the Andalite. [Are you well?] The visser laughed. And then, it was as though every nightmare I'd ever had as a child popped into my head at once. The monster under my bed, waiting for a single dangling arm to grab and use to yank me down to my doom. The bogeyman in my closest, ready to whisk me off to his world of darkness and despair. The creature from Alien, creeping across my ceiling like a spider to devour Marco and myself for foolishly staying up late to watch its movie.

Pure, unfiltered, pants-shitting fear. I wanted to run. To flee, screaming and hollering, all the way home. To crawl into bed where nothing could touch me, pull the covers over my head, and stay there until well after dawn.

[Be at peace.]

And then, just like that, the fear was gone. It was replaced by something…else. My nightmares gave way to other feelings. Memories, almost. Memories of how I used to check the closet, under my bed, and the ceiling itself for the monsters of the night, flashlight in one hand and a Swiss Army knife in the other. I remembered being scared. Terrified, even. But still ready to fight.

Courage. Elfangor was sharing his courage with us, through whatever means he used to speak to us. We accepted it, gratefully. Cassie stopped holding her head.

Elfangor was scared, too. I could feel it. But he wasn't giving in to the Yeerks, in to the naked evil filling our hearts and minds with fear. Elfangor was an Andalite warrior. A prince of his people. He would not whimper and moan before his enemies. No way.

Elfangor knew that he was about to die. But the Andalite would go down with his head held high.

Elfangor lay on his side, glaring hate up at the Controllers now grouping in front of him. The Andalite-Controller, Visser Three, stepped forward.

[I am so glad to see you again, old friend] Visser Three said.

[The pleasure is all yours] Elfangor replied.

Visser Three laughed again. The wave of fear came rolling back over us. It did not effect us as much as it had before. But we all still felt it.

"Okay," Marco whispered. His voice was shaky. "I'm ready to wake up, now."

[Allow me to compliment you on your efforts in keeping my people off of this ball of water the inhabitants call a planet.] Visser Three chuckled darkly. [You almost succeeded. Almost.]

[Your victory will be short-lived, Abomination] Elfangor spit. [My uncles will be arriving soon to destroy you and every one of your craven race.]

[You and your "uncles" have caused me a great deal of trouble] Visser Three replied. [Let it never be said I failed to give the Andalites credit where it was due. But, I'm afraid that you are the last living Andalite in this sector of space. I watched your Dome Ships burn as they broke up in the atmosphere of this little world. You left them all to die.]

[I sent out a distress call before I abandoned ship] Elfangor shot back.

[Intercepted] Visser Three told him. [Your call was bounced off of this planet's moon and sent into deep space. No one will hear it. And by now, my fleet has made planetfall all around this settlement. The planet you gave everything to defend is now ours.]

"That's fantastic," Marco muttered.

Rachel flicked him in the ear. "Shut up!"

[The humans will fight you.] Elfangor said. [Their weapons are primitive, but they are stubborn and numerous. You are thousands. They are billions.]

[They argue and war with each other on a scale that puts our own races' disagreements to shame.] Visser Three circled Elfangor. [An organized resistance could threaten us, yes, but it will never happen. We will infiltrate one city at a time, working our way through their nations and leadership. And once we have taken this world, we will build up an armada and descend upon your homeworld.]

[You will never take over my people, Yeerk.]

[No, Andalite, we will not.] Visser Three cackled. [Your people are too wise to our ways to take down from the inside. No, your people will simply be destroyed. We will torch the Andalites from orbit, and I will watch as your people burn and suffer.]

The Visser's eyes gleamed with sadistic pleasure. [But, maybe not all of them will have to die. I can be merciful. Perhaps, if you beg long enough, I will spare your family long enough to place my lieutenants inside of their heads.]

He bent his front legs and knelt over Elfangor. [Would you like me to do that for you, Elfangor? All you have to do is ask.]

_Fwapp!_

The Andalite's tail flew off the ground, so fast I almost missed it.

The bladed arced up towards the Visser's head. The visser saw it coming, and managed to twist his torso to dodge the blow. But Elfangor's blade caught Visser Three in the shoulder. The Controller's arm was ripped away from his body and fell to the ground.

[Aaaaaaargh!]

At the same time, a blinding blue beam of light shot from the tail of the Andalite's ship. It went up into the air and sliced through the flying saucer. The Yeerk's ship exploded, blasting the air with fire and debris. We ducked away from the blistering heat as Elfangor and the Yeerks dove for cover.

"Yes!" I shouted over the explosion.

[Sub-Visser Eight!] Visser Three roared. With his one remaining arm, he yanked a piece of shrapnel from his side. [Destroy his ship!]

Only one of the Hork-Bajir was still standing. The blue-banded soldier. From its waist the Hork-Bajir drew an item I had not noticed before, a two-foot metal rod with a scope on the top. It made some sort of adjustment on the rod, then aimed it at Elfangor's fighter. A bright red laser shot from the rod and hit the ship. There was a sizzling sound as the fighter faded from existence.

Elfangor collapsed. He was too hurt to flee. But he could still fight. The Visser, despite his injuries, advanced on him.

[Clever, Andalite. Always so clever.] The Visser whipped Elfangor with his own tail. Elfangor rolled away. I could see the blue box clutched tightly to his chest. [Never without your little tricks and schemes] Visser Three continued, too focused on hurting Elfangor to notice the blue box. [Very well, Elfangor. Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. Known to his people and mine as Yeerkbane. Fight if you must. It will make this all the more enjoyable.]

[Observe, warriors] Elfangor said to us. [Witness the power I have given you.]

And then, Visser Three began to morph.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Sacrifice

Visser Three's head grew larger and larger. Much larger. His four horse-like legs merged into two and then expanded, each leg becoming as big around as my entire body. His arm grew equally thick. From his wounded shoulder, a second arm grew. His fingers twisted together to form massive, four-fingered claws. In the hideously bloated head, a mouth appeared. It was filled with teeth as long as my arm. The mouth grew wider and wider, becoming a monstrous, terrifying grin.

"Please don't let this be real," Cassie prayed. "Please don't let this be real."

Visser Three's Andalite body was gone. In its place sat a monster that made his Hork-Bajir look like a doll. He reached out with one his claws and seized Elfangor by the neck. Elfangor struck at the claw with his ludicrously fast tail, but it was like trying to cut down a redwood tree with a rock. Visser Three caught the tail in his other claw and yanked it clean off. Elfangor cried out in pain.

"No," Cassie muttered. Over and over. "No, no, no, no, no!"

"Don't look." Tobias took her and held her close. Cassie turned away from the grisly scene and buried her head in his chest. It was surprising. Tobias, meek and powerless, still had some strength to spare.

Visser Three lifted Elfangor high into the air, directly over his head, and grinned a toothy grin. He lowered Elfangor down ever so slightly, and slowly nibbled of his hind legs off. Then the other. Elfangor screamed all the while.

[Any last words Andalite?] Visser Three sneered. His face was covered in Elfangor's blood, a lime-colored shade of green. [Any final wisdoms left to impart?]

Elfangor said nothing at all. He pried at the Visser's claws. They didn't budge. [No?] Visser Three said. [Very well, then. Die with honor. Yeerkbane.]

Visser Three raised Elfangor back up over his head. And opened his mouth wide.

"Let him go!"

I don't know what came over me. I'd been terrified. So terrified. But something inside of me just snapped. I couldn't just sit and hide any longer. I dropped the disk, picked up a piece of cinderblock, and stepped around the doorway.

[No!]

Elfangor's whispered cry made me hesitate. I felt Rachel and Marco grab me by the shoulders and yank me back around the corner. Marco slammed me up against the wall. "Are you insane?" he hissed. "Are you trying to get us all killed?

"Jake, don't you understand?" Rachel said. "He's sacrificing himself to save us. If you run out there, he'll die for nothing."

Even hurt, even in agonizing pain, even bleeding out from horrifying wounds, Elfangor was still fighting. Still trying to protect Earth. And us.

I angrily shoved Marco away. We all poked our heads back into the room. Just in time to see Visser Three drop Elfangor.

The Andalite fell into Visser Three's gaping maw, still holding the blue box tight. The Visser snapped his teeth shut. Elfangor let out a last, pained cry of despair as those horrible teeth ripped him apart.

And thus ended the life of Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.

The Hork-Bajir, Sub-Visser Eight, let out a low-pitched series of clucks that sounded like laughter. The girl and the old man laughed too. It was so normal sounding, their laughter. Like a laugh track for a sitcom.

It was horrible.

The Visser demorphed. His grotesque form faded into the more delicate body of an Andalite. One, I noticed, whole and healthy despite the damage Elfangor's last stand had dealt him. But there was an aura about him that still remained. You only needed to look at him to see the evil hidden within him.

[There's nothing quite like an Antarean Bogg morph for…disposing of one's enemies.]

"An excellent display, my Visser," the girl complimented.

[Thank you, Sub-Visser Seven] Visser Three replied. [Now, then. Sub-Visser Nine, how soon can my Blade Ship send a transport to retrieve us?]

"It will take some time, my Visser," the old man answered. "They are, per your orders, scouting for any other Andalite survivors."

[Excellent] the Visser said. [Plenty of time to bask in the moment.]

Marco doubled over and started throwing up. It was understandable. I almost did myself. I just wish he had been less noisy about it.

All four Yeerks looked towards our hiding spot. We ducked out of sight. But it was too late.

[Sub-Visser Eight.]

Hard, heavy footsteps moved rapidly towards our hiding place. We started running.

"Split up!" I shouted. "It can't chase all of us!"

We came to a fork in the ruined hallway. Tobias, Cassie, and Marco went left. Rachel and I went right. The footsteps grew closer.

I tripped. It was dark, and I could barely see where I was going. I hit the ground hard and couldn't keep myself from crying out. I heard chirping behind me. There was an opening to my right. I rolled into it and crawled around the corner.

My head bounced off a wall. Tears of pain filled my eyes. I went fetal as those heavy footsteps stopped behind me. I heared something breathing hard. I got my phone out, flipped on the light, and shined it upward.

Sub-Visser Eight glared down at me, taller than a mountain. He reached down, grabbed me by the collar, and lifted me up to his eye level. He held me close, face-to-face, and chirped at me.

I saw a pale white hand reach up towards the back of his head. It held a piece of wood. The wood slammed into the side of the Hork-Bajir's head. Sub-Visser Eight dropped me like a hot potato. I landed on my feet and ran past Rachel. She followed close behind me.

We didn't stop running until we had emerged from Deathburg. I looked behind us for the others, to see if the aliens were following. Rachel was behind me. I saw her eyes widen.

"Jake, stop!"

I bounced off something solid. Fleshy. I fell backwards. My head hit something hard. Sharp. I felt a wet, stickiness in the back of my head.

I stayed concious long enough to see a pair of hands reaching for me. Then, I blacked out. But not before having one, final thought.

_We left the disk._


	6. Chapter 6 - The Denial

It was Uncle Paul who found Rachel and I.

He went out looking for us, after Jordan found him and my parents and told them what was going on. Marco, Cassie, and Tobias ran straight back to the school. We all managed to make it out, without anyone getting sliced up by aliens or devoured by grotesque monsters.

Obviously, people saw the Yeerk ship go up in flames. The official story was, some kids were playing with fireworks and caused a gas leak. They didn't notice, and set off the gas. The story ran on the nightly news, and was never mentioned again. None of the papers talked about any of us. I thought for a while that somehow, being the DA's youngest, I'd manage to make it into the local paper eventually. If I had any money worth mentioning, I'd bet Mom pulled some strings and managed to keep us all out of the news.

In any case, our parents certainly blamed us. I got shouted at, and grounded for week.

From what I heard, though, Tobias' grandmother was pretty chill about it, Marco's dad just told him off, and Cassie just had to promise she'd never do something so reckless again.

Rachel, on the other hand, disappeared into Serial Killers 'R Us and came out bruised, dirty, and missing her top. Uncle Paul is the kind of dad who suddenly needs to clean his guns whenever his daughters bring a guy over, and Rachel thinks she walks on water, so you can imagine how her punishment went.

Tom laughed himself sick. He thought it was hilarious we'd almost gotten blown up looking for Tobias, and all the trouble Rachel and I got into for trying to do the right thing. Marco, Rachel, and I never told him what really happened. He wouldn't have believed us if we did, and honestly? We didn't quite believe our stories, either.

In hindsight, we were really lucky. But it didn't feel like it at the time. After the concussion, the lectures (from Mom, Dad, and Uncle Paul), and a hundred and sixty-eight hours of no phone, Internet, or freedom, I'd almost convinced myself it was all a dream. A hallucination, brought on from overexposure to some unknown, natural gas. After all, that was what everyone said had happened. What reason did I have to disbelieve it?

The answer, it turned out, was Rachel. I was out in the front yard, mowing the grass as part of my punishment, when she came skipping up the sidewalk. I waved her over, stopped the mower, and stretched my arms. "Uncle Paul finally letting you see daylight?"

She was grinning, ear to ear. "I morphed Chance."

I stopped mid-stretch. Chance was her dog. Well, not her dog. Chance was a malinois, trained from a puppy to serve as part of the new K-9 units the city had created a few years back. Uncle Paul and Chance were on the streets nearly every night, chasing down bad guys and protecting the community. Rachel was very proud.

"I'm sorry." I crossed my arms and stared at her. "You did what?"

"I morphed Chance!"

"Bullshit."

"Nope."

I stared at her. She was still grinning like a fool. "Bullshit," I said again.

"Jake," Rachel said, "Have I ever lied to you?"

I had to say no. Rachel is honest, often painfully so. That didn't mean she was telling the truth, though. "Are you sure you didn't, like…dream it, or something?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Seriously?"

"It's plausible. I mean, that explosion -"

"You were the one who hit your head, Jake," Rachel told me. "Not me."

"Yeah," I responded. "And I don't remember anything after that. And what I do remember, I don't want to. Spaceships and evil slugs and -"

"The Andalite."

I blinked. Rachel spoke again. "And the Andalite. Elfangor. Do you want to forget him, too?"

"I -"

"Because he and his people died trying to protect us, Jake." she continued. "The Andalites gave their lives fighting an enemy no one has even heard of, and Elfangor's last act was to give us the ability to defend ourselves. And we've spent all week just sitting on our asses pretending he didn't. So I'll ask again, cousin. Do you want to forget Elfangor?"

"No," I replied. "No, I don't."

"Good."

There was an awkward silence. We both kind of stared at the lawn for a minute, trying to avoid looking at each other. Finally, I said, "So, you're positive, then? You actually morphed Chance?"

Rachel nodded. I sighed. "Okay. We can morph. Now what?"

"Well," Rachel said. "Now, I guess we figure out what we're going to do. How we're going to approach this."

"What do you think we should do?"

Rachel shrugged. "I've thought about it, but I don't know where to start. How about you?"

I thought for a moment. "Elfangor said the Andalites morphed to spy on the Yeerks, right? So, maybe we should try and figure out what morphs would be best for that?"

"Like what?"

"I dunno. Birds or something."

Rachel grinned. "That'd be fun."

"But, we need to learn how," I said. "So, how'd you do it?"

"I…" Rachel stopped. "I just...I was feeding Chance this morning, thinking about what the Andalite said. You know, about concentrating? And so, I started petting him, and I was focusing on his fur, and his ears and face. And…"

"And?"

Rachel shook her head. She seemed frustrated. "It's difficult to describe. Can I just show you?"

I sighed again. "Fine. But, not out here. Let me talk to Mom."

We started walking towards my house. "Where's Jordan?" I asked her.

"She's at home," Rachel said.

"You didn't show her?"

"No."

That was weird. Rachel and Jordan were pretty close, and Tom and I never found out something about one that the other didn't already know. I opened the front door and held it for Rachel. "Why not?"

"I just didn't, okay?"

"Alright." I motioned inside. "After you." Rachel moved past me, and I shut the door behind us.

Mom was in the kitchen, reading several things from a mess of notebooks. She was listening to music on an iPod, with headphones on, her unspoken signal for not wanting to be disturbed. Officially, she doesn't work weekends, but she's never been shy about bringing her work home with her. My family didn't mind, too much. She made herself unavailable from six o'clock Saturday morning to around noon, and then the rest of the weekend was hers. And we always made it a point to go out for dinner and a movie on Saturday nights with my cousins and uncle.

I waved to get Mom's attention. She looked up from her work and removed her headphones. "Hello, Jake. Did you get the yard done?" She smiled when Rachel walked in. "Hello, Rachel. Is Paul finally letting you see daylight?"

"Hey, that's what I said."

Rachel winked at Mom. Mom laughed. Uncle Paul was my mom's younger brother, and from watching them interact, I was glad my older sibling was not a sister. My parents were strict, but when it came to my cousins, Rachel and Jordan could get away with murder, for no other reason than so Mom could annoy my uncle. "Payback for putting up with him as a kid," Mom told Tom and I when we asked about it, though we never found out any specifics. But, apparently, I was not living up to my asshole-little-brother potential.

Mom said to us, "Rachel, Jake is still grounded. He's not allowed to have friends over."

This was true. "I know, Mom. But, Rachel said she had something to show me."

Mom looked over at Rachel. "His sentence isn't over for another week. It can wait."

"Please, Aunt Reyna?" Rachel said. "It's important."

"Why?" Mom asked.

"Because…" Rachel paused to think for a minute. That was a mistake; Mom used to be a prosecutor. She saw an opening, and seized it.

"Does your father know about it?"

Rachel cocked her head. "No?"

"Does your sister?"

"No."

Mom blinked. Like I said, Rachel hiding things from Jordan was unusual. "Can you tell me?"

Rachel shook her head. "No."

Mom glared at her. "What on Earth could possibly -"

"I'm pregnant."

Mom and I both stared at her. Rachel shrugged. "That was it. Now you both know."

I looked at Mom. Then, at Rachel. Then, at Mom. Then, back at Rachel. Finally, after a very long moment, Mom just shook her head and laughed. "Fine. Don't tell me. Jake, you get an hour."

"Thanks, Mom." I raced upstairs to my room. Rachel followed me. Behind us, Mom put her headphones back on and returned to work.

I was fortunate enough to live in a house where closed doors were respected. Today, I was grateful for that rule. After Rachel was safely inside, I closed and locked the door behind her. My room didn't have a lot in it; there was my bed, a desk with my computer on it for gaming and homework, and a closet for the rest of my stuff. I turned around and sat on my bed, then immediately looked away when Rachel started pulling her clothes off.

"Rachel, what the hell?!"

"Look," she said, "when I did this before, I tore up my clothes, okay? Don't make it weird."

"You already made it weird!"

"Deal with it." She kicked her clothes towards the door. "And keep your voice down."

I found a spot on the wall and stared at it. "Fine. Hurry up and morph."

"Jake."

"What?"

"You-" I heard her sigh. "You have to watch, Jake."

"I'm good."

"You're being a fucking putz, can you just watch, please."

"I don't see why," I told her, "this has to involve nudity."

"Jake!"

"Fine. Fucking fine." I turned my head back towards her, and locked my gaze with her angry glare. "Hurry up."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Idiot." She crossed her arms and took a breath. "Okay. Here I go."

She closed her eyes, and took another breath. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Staring so intently at her face, I noticed that she had blonde peach fuzz growing along her jaw and cheeks. It was actually funny. Rachel had always been self-conscious about her personal appearance, wasted no opportunity to tease Tom and I whenever we put off shaving for a few days, and here she was sporting a beard! And the more I looked at it, the more it seemed like the fuzz was...expanding?

No, I wasn't seeing things. Short, fuzzy hairs were growing straight out of her face, her forearms, then all across the rest of her body. Her nakedness soon stopped mattering as her form was covered in what I realized was actual fur. And as the fur grew, her long, blonde hair withdrew into her scalp. Her head sucked her hair in like a fat, happy kid slurping up spaghetti noodles.

"Jesus."

Rachel opened her eyes, and then, her nose and jaw stretched and twisted into a very canine-looking snout. Her eyes grew bigger, more circular and dark, and her ears moved up the sides of her head and grew into points. Her hands and feet shrank and formed into paws. Her shins and forearms narrowed into doggy legs, and her knees reversed direction.

For a moment, she looked liked a werewolf. Or, someone's idea of a fursona. She suddenly fell forward, towards me. I reached out to catch her, but she was heavy, and forced me onto my back as she landed on top of me. We fell onto the bed.

I felt warm fur under my hands. A rough, wet tongue started licking my face. I shoved Rachel off of me and sat up. And, where my cousin had stood not sixty seconds before, sat her dog, Chance the malinois.


	7. Chapter 7 - The First

Hey, guys! Been a minute. I decided to take some time and actually make an outline for this, which drastically changed the plot from what I had originally intended to sort of a hybrid between the book its based off of, and the pilot episode of the TV show. This involved rewinding a bit, touching up what I'd already written, and adding a plot device. If you want to go back and reread, great! If not, I'll summarize them for you.

Everything between Chapter 3 and Chapter 7 (this one) involves the kid's encounter with Elfangor and their introduction to Visser Three. It plays out almost exactly like it does in the book, with some minor changes. LSS, Elfangor gives Jake a disk that he immediately loses, Elfangor sacrifices himself and tricks Visser Three into gobbling up the morphing cube, and Visser Three's lieutenants are introduced. They are Sub-Visser Seven, Sub-Visser Eight, and Sub-Visser Nine.It has now been a week since the kids found the Andalite. I also deleted the conversation Jake and Marco had, because even when I was writing it it didn't feel like how Marco would act.

Chapter 6 and 7 involve Rachel going over to Jake's and morphing into her dog. Chapter 8 is where the new content starts. Enjoy!

\-- Zard

* * *

I stared at Chance. And Chance stared at me.

Tentatively, I reached out to pet him. Chance has a spot just under the left side of his jaw that he loves getting scratched. He lifted his head slightly and leaned into my fingers, accepting the attention. He panted happily.

No. Not Chance. Rachel. My cousin, one of my closest friends, who my brother and I grew up with. Proud, stubborn, Rachel. Now, a dog.

"I'm dreaming."

[It's not a dream, Jake.]

"Wait," I said, "you can talk?"

Rachel jerked her head back, surprised. [Hold up. Did Jake just read my mind?]

I pulled my hand back. "Did I?"

Rachel paused. [Okay. Can you hear me?]

"Yes. No." I frowned. "It's like it was with the Andalite. I can hear you, but not really. You know?"

Rachel nodded. Have you ever seen a dog nod? No, you haven't. So, let me tell you, it's fucking weird. [You heard me thinking. I'm thinking right now. At you. I'm talking to you. With my mind. Telepathically.]

I paused. _Rachel, can you hear me?_

She said nothing. I tried again. [Rachel, can you hear me?]

Her head cocked to the side, with one ear angled up to the ceiling. Very doglike. [Yes! How are you doing that?]

"I thought at you," I replied. "I think. This is strange."

[This is awesome.] Rachel sniffed the air. [Huh. What'd you have for breakfast this morning?]

"Cereal."

[What kind?]

"Cocoa Puffs," I said. "Why?"

[I smell...chocolate. On your breath.] I "heard" her giggle. [Did you brush your teeth today?]

"No."

[Gross.]

I shrugged. "I figured I'd do it after I got the yard done."

[Still gross.] She started sniffing around the room. She sniffed her clothes, along the baseboard, and under the desk and bed. When she got to my closet, she stopped. [Hey! What's in here?]

"What? Why?"

[I smell something weird.]

I went and opened the closet door. It was a sliding door, made of cheap wood. My clothes were hanging up on the left side, and on the right, my TV on top of a small, entertainment center with a drawer on the bottom. The TV was hidden because Marco and I pulled it from the school dumpster after the school decided all of their "education enhancement tools" needed replacing. I kept an Xbox, a Switch, and my games for them inside the entertainment center, along with…other things. Rachel sniffed the drawer and scratched at it. [It's in here] she told me. She looked back at me. [What's inside?]

"Video games," I said.

Rachel sniffed and scratched again. [Open it!]

I sighed, and then opened the drawer. Rachel shoved her nose into the drawer and started sniffing away. She suddenly pulled her head back and snorted. I actually laughed. [No, seriously] said Rachel, [I smell something in there. What else do you -]

Rachel stopped talking (thinking?) all of the sudden, and darted into the closet. She almost knocked me over as she moved past me. The door rattled as she shoved her form inside. I heard her scratching and rummaging around.

"Rachel?"

She ignored me. "Rachel, what are you doing?"

[I FOUND A THING.]

I winced. Somehow, that was loud. Who knew telepathic shouting could hurt your ears? "What did you find?"

She ignored me again. I reached over her back, grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, and with a grunt, yanked Rachel back out of the closet. I wound up with a sixty-pound malinois in my lap, clutching an old baseball I'd completely forgotten I had in its mouth, tail wagging and thumping against my elbow.

"Cute," I said. I shoved her off and stood up. "Okay, I've seen you morph. Very nice. Now change back."

Rachel dropped the ball. My floor is carpeted, but the baseball still made an audible thud when it hit. It rolled across the carpet for a few inches, but that was enough to make Rachel decide the ball was trying to run. She pounced on it and started chewing, making very happy, and very loud, noises as she did.

"Rachel, stop!" I went over and grabbed for the ball. "Mom will -"

Rachel dropped the ball and snapped at me! I barely pulled my hand back in time to avoid losing it. Large, wicked-looking teeth closed around air as I withdrew. She let out an angry growl, and I figured out why malinois made great police dogs.

"Rachel," I said slowly. "Give me the ball."

She growled again. [MINE.]

There was that loud, thought-speak again. And angry. Rachel really didn't want to give me the ball.

There had been one time, back when Rachel and her family had only had Chance for a year, when we were all at the park. We were throwing a Frisbee for Chance, but when it was time to go, Chance didn't want to give us the Frisbee. He had acted the same way Rachel was, but with less biting, and Uncle Paul had to step in and make Chance give up the Frisbee. Jordan told me later that Uncle Paul had spent the next weekend working with Chance and my cousins, making Chance understand that he had to listen to them. Chance was a great dog, in my opinion, well-trained and fiercely loyal to Uncle Paul. But with everyone else, Jordan told me, Chance needed some convincing before he respected you enough to listen.

And, to be frank, Rachel worked the same way. I held my hand back out, palm up. Firmly, I said, "Rachel. Give."

She eyeballed me. The ball sat between her front legs. I spoke to her, again, like I'd seen her and Jordan and Uncle Paul do with Chance. "No, Rachel. Give."

Rachel didn't give me the ball. But, she stood up and moved away from it. I reached for it, picked the ball up, and tossed it into the closet. That was a mistake. Rachel nearly knocked the door off its track as she bolted into the closet after it. "Rachel!"

[I GOTTA GET THE THING.]

"Rachel, what are you doing?" I shouted. "Stop!"

The door shook again as Rachel turned back around. She stuck her head around the closet door and looked over at my bedroom door. [FOOTSTEPS.]

Sure enough, I heard someone walking up the stairs. Without a second thought, I ran over and shoved Rachel back inside the closet. I quickly gathered up her clothes and threw them in on top of her. She growled at me again. I ignored her and closed the door.

Rachel pawed the door. [OUT.]

[Shut up! Mom's coming.]

It wasn't Mom. There was a knock on the door, and I heard Tom's voice. "Hey, Rachel? Mom says you need to get home. Uncle Paul called and he sounds pissed."

I glanced at the closet. Rachel said nothing. I didn't know if that was a good thing or not. At least she wasn't trying to get out.

"Rachel? Jake? You guys in there?"

Thinking quickly, I said, "Sorry, Tom. I'm getting ready to jump in the shower. Rachel already took off. Can you tell Mom?"

"Tell her yourself," he replied. "I'm not the family messenger." I heard him move up the hallway to his own room. I gave him a few more seconds to leave, just to be safe. Afterward, I let Rachel out of the closet. She came out slowly, looking exactly like a dog that had just been soundly reprimanded.

"You good?"

[Yeah. I think so.] She sat down and looked up at me. [Sorry. I don't know what came over me. Once I saw that baseball, it was like I…]

She trailed off. I went and sat on my bed. "It was like you weren't you, anymore. It felt like I was dealing with the real Chance."

[Really?]

I nodded. "Yeah. For a while, you weren't Rachel. You were Chance."

[That…that makes sense, actually. I didn't realize what I was doing until I heard Tom say Dad was looking for me.] Rachel walked over to the bed. [I feel like me. I am me. But, I also feel...I feel more energetic. Happier. Bouncy. That's a good word for it. Like…like…]

I rubbed her head. Now that she wasn't trying to eat my face, Rachel looked adorable. "Like an actual dog?"

Rachel closed her eyes. [Yeah. That feels super good, by the way. I can see why Chance likes attention so much.]

I stopped petting her. "You should get out of here."

[Dad can get bent] Rachel said. I heard her sigh in my head. [But, you're probably right. I'm demorphing, don't look.]

I started staring at the wall again as Rachel started changing. She took a few minutes to dress, then came and sat down next to me. We both just sat there for a minute, staring at the floor.

"This is really real," Rachel said. "Isn't it? The Andalite, the Yeerks. All of it."

"Yeah."

She stood up. I got up and hugged her. She hugged me back. "So now what?" she asked me.

"Now?" I said. "Now, we tell the others."

Rachel nodded. "After school, Friday. Cassie's place? She's got that old barn that would give us loads of privacy. No one would bother us while we talked, and the others could watch me morph."

"Sure," I said. It was Sunday. Friday was a ways off, but our parents would never let us go over to Cassie's on a school night. And, if we wanted to practice morphing where no one could see, Cassie's barn was the best place to do it.

Rachel nodded. "Okay. I'll let her know. Cassie will want to do this. We can talk to Tobias. Can you deal with Marco?"

"Yes," I replied.

Rachel stood up. "We're doing this, right? Fighting the Yeerks? Because I don't want to do this alone."

"I can't speak for everyone else," I told her. "Let's just wait and see what happens Friday."

"Okay." Rachel went to the bedroom door and opened it. "I'll see you at school, then."

After she left, I went to the drawer. I opened it, and pulled a stack of games out. Underneath them was a pair of magazines. Each of them had a grinning woman on the covers, wearing nothing but their smiles.

_That was close._


	8. Chapter 8 - The Meeting

I decided to hold off on telling Marco until Thursday afternoon, on the bus home from school. He, like me, had pretty much put the Andalite and everything else behind him. And he was less than pleased when I told him Rachel and I were getting everyone together to talk about it.

But, Marco was still my best friend. "I'm only promising that I'll come with you," he said to me. "Just to hear you and Rachel out. Nothing else."

That was fine. Marco had very good reasons for not wanting to get involved with fighting an invasion of aliens. Not like any sane person didn't. "That's all I ask," I told him.

I told my parents I was going to Cassie's with Rachel Friday night. They said to be back before ten. So, Friday afternoon, Marco, Rachel, Tobias, and I all piled into Cassie's mom's old minivan. Rachel rode shotgun. Marco and I sat in the middle seats. And Tobias sat in the back, watching out the window.

Cassie's mom had a newer, nicer van that she took to work, and her dad needed his truck for chores on the farm, so Cassie's parents gave her the van. When we were all buckled in, Cassie drove out into the street and headed for home.

"Jake," Marco said, "how long have you known that Rachel knew someone with a car?"

Cassie got her license months ago. The van was her sixteenth birthday present. "News to me," I replied.

"Do you know what we could do with this level of freedom?" Marco asked. "Cassie? Rachel? How would you like to join our social circle?"

Rachel kept her eyes forward as she responded. "Why on God's green Earth would we want to do that?"

"It's a very exclusive club, Rachel." Marco grinned. "Invitation only."

"We'll be sure to lose ours in the mail."

Cassie held her hand out to Rachel, palm up. Rachel gently gave her a low-five.

"Ouch," Marco said lamely. Tobias chuckled.

It took about twenty minutes for Cassie to drive us out to her family's farm. It's not exactly a normal farm, though it had been when her family originally built it. And they still have horses. On occasion, they'll even raise a pig or steer for slaughter. But their barn is mainly used to house a wildlife clinic for patching up injured animals. Neighbors or Animal Control will call Cassie's dad when they come across a messed up deer or something, so he and Cassie can pick it up and nurse it back to health. They usually have birds, oppossums, and other small critters, but it's not uncommon for them to pickup bears or bobcats. They even had a mountain lion, once.

Cassie's mom is a vet, too. But, she runs a small-animal clinic in town. Cassie will sometimes help out there, too. Fortunately for Cassie, she loves animals.

Cassie pulled straight up to the house. We all got out and walked towards the barn. I noticed the van was the only vehicle around. "Where's your dad?" I asked.

"Out," Cassie said. "He texted me earlier saying he got a call about a coyote."

We went inside the barn. Cages, kennels, and all other sorts of containers lined the right wall. Most were empty, but three of them were occupied. There was a rabbit missing one of its front legs, a dusty old crow, and a terrarium housing a rattlesnake that had lost a fight with somebody's cat. It was sunning itself on a flat rock, seemingly oblivious to the world.

To the left was a workbench and a rack of tools. In the back were stalls for the horses and the clinic's larger patients. The stalls were all empty. We were alone.

Cassie closed the door behind us. Marco flopped down on a hay bale. "Okay. We're here. Now what?"

Rachel walked purposefully towards the stalls. She pulled her shirt over her head. Tobias looked away, face red. Marco's eyes bugged out. Rachel dropped down behind the stall door. Cassie looked at me.

"Give it a minute," I told her. I could hear Rachel moving around in the stall.

After about thirty seconds, we heard Rachel say, [Okay. I'm done.]

"Oh, good," Marco said. "We're doing this again."

I smirked. [You can do it too, dude.]

Marco gave me a bewildered look. "Wait, we can?" He closed his eyes. [Can you guys hear me?]

"Great," Tobias said. "Now we'll never shut him up."

Chance's head and front paws appeared over the stall door. Rachel panted. [Is someone going to let me out?]

"Rachel?" Cassie started towards her. "Is that you?"

[Who else would it be?]

"Sure as hell ain't Lassie," Marco joked. But he was staring at Rachel, wide-eyed. "I'm gonna be honest, Jake, I was hoping you and your cousin were screwing with me."

"Same," Tobias said. He had his arms crossed and was watching Rachel. "So, is that what the Andalite was talking about? Morphing?"

"Yep." Cassie opened the stall door. Rachel came bounding out like a kangaroo. She sat down in front of Cassie and wagged her tail. Cassie giggle and scratched her head.

"Adorable," Marco said. "Okay. So the Yeerks and everything weren't just a fever dream. Now what?"

"If everything we saw that night was actually real," Cassie said, "we should do something about it."

Rachel barked. [We've got superpowers, guys! We can deal with this, no problem.]

"Sure," Marco said. "A dog versus whatever that thing Visser Three turned into was. That'll go well. We have no idea what we're up against!"

"Elfangor said that the Andalites used morphing for spying and gathering intel," I told him. "It makes sense. We could spy on the Yeerks, learn what we need to know -"

[Hey!] Rachel shouted in our heads. We all winced. Rachel's ears drooped. [Sorry. Jake, what about that disk Elfangor gave you? Do you still have it?]

All eyes were on me. "No." I looked down at the floor. "I dropped it when the Hork-Bajir was chasing us."

"Bummer," Marco remarked.

"So, we've got nothing?" Tobias asked me.

"We could always go back for it," I suggested.

I was kidding. The last thing I wanted to do was go back to Deathburg. But Rachel's ears perked back up. [Hey! We could!]

Rachel looked up at Cassie. "I'm down," Cassie said. "The Andalite said everything we had to know was on that disk. We're gonna need it."

"Pass." Marco stood up and stretched. "This is not something we should be getting involved with."

"What else can we do, then?" I asked him. "Can we go to someone, like you said earlier? The media?"

[The Andalite said the Yeerks have already started infesting people] Rachel replied. [He specifically told us not to trust anyone.]

None of us said anything for a while. We had all just had the same, horrible feeling; that we were all alone. Like we were dealing with something way, way over our heads.

"So it's just us?" Tobias finally said. He leaned back against the barn door as he spoke. "That seems...not good."

"Look, why do we even have to deal with this?" Marco looked over at me. "Why can't we just forget about it? We don't have to morph. We don't have to fight the Yeerks. We can just fend for ourselves and mind our own business."

Tobias stayed silent. But Cassie and Rachel were both looking at me. They expected me to argue with Marco.

"Look, man, I -"

But Marco suddenly went postal. "We could get killed, Jake! This isn't a video game. We don't get to just keep throwing ourselves at the bad guys and die until we figure out some special, tricky trick to kill them. You saw what they did to the Andalite. We will fucking _die_ if we fight them."

Rachel was giving Marco a dirty look, like she thought he was just being spineless or something. But I knew Marco. I knew what his issue was.

Marco's mom walked out on him and his dad about two years ago. She just packed up her things one night and disappeared. His dad fell apart. He couldn't work, and wound up losing his job as a software developer. Now, he works for a temp agency, taking whatever work he can for whatever they'll pay. When he's not at work, Marco's dad just sits in front of the TV, watching it with the sound off.

"I'm not a coward, Jake," Marco said. "You know that. But if something were to happen to me, my dad…he wouldn't be able to take it. You know?"

I wanted to go over and pat him on the shoulder, or something like that. But Marco would just say something sarcastic.

"Whether we choose to save the world," Tobias said, "or look after ourselves…" He glanced over at Marco. "We need information. And that disk is our best chance at getting some."

Cassie nodded. [Agreed] Rachel chimed in.

I looked at Marco. He said nothing. I took that as agreement. "Okay. How do we get it?"

[We morph] Rachel responded. [Duh.]


	9. Chapter 9 - The Friction

"Well said, my khaleesi," Marco said to Rachel. "Into what?"

I looked from him to Cassie to Tobias. "Have any of you morphed yet?"

Marco snorted. "Really? You have to ask?"

"No," Cassie replied.

I glanced over at Tobias. He shook his head. "Me neither," I said. I looked over at Rachel. "Okay, Rachel. Tell us what we need to know."

[First, and foremost] Rachel told us, [you can't morph clothes. I've tried. I've really, _really_ tried.] She looked down at the floor in embarrassment, strongly resembling a dog that had just been scolded. [That's why I had to take mine off. So there's that. So if we get serious about morphing, we're all going to have to learn to be respectful. And not make this weird.]

All eyes glanced over at Marco. He noticed. He actually looked offended.

"Seriously?"

"You looked when Rachel morphed," Cassie said sharply.

"Underwear is one thing. That's practically a bikini." Marco crossed his arms defiantly. "Only a perv scopes full nudity."

[Regardless] Rachel said, [it's something we're all going to have to deal with.]

Tobias was staring up at the ceiling. His face had turned red again. Marco smirked. "Understood."

[Second] Rachel continued, [you have to cope with the morph itself. It's not just you and yourself in your new body. You get the morph's instincts and mentality along with everything else.]

Cassie nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. The vast majority of the animal kingdom relies more on instincts than learned behavior. Mother birds don't teach their chicks how to fly, for example."

"No," Marco replied darkly, "they just drop them off the nest and let the chicks figure it out for themselves."

"But," Cassie continued, ignoring Marco completely, "Mother mountain lions have to teach their cubs how to hunt. They go on killing sprees, actually. One of our neighbors lost an entire herd of sheep overnight."

[That's awesome!]

"Not really."

"Can we focus, please?" Tobias asked.

[Right. Sorry.] Rachel scratched at her neck. [Anyways, the instincts can sneak up on you. So watch out for that.]

"Anything else?"

[Yes. Actually getting the morph.] Rachel finished scratching and panted. [The Andalite, may he rest in peace -]

[Pieces, more like] Marco whispered to me sardonically.

[- was actually pretty vague about how we acquire morphs] Rachel continued.

"He said we just had to touch the animal," Tobias said. "Right?"

"'Simply place your hand upon the animal, or being, concentrate upon their shape, and then later, summon that form into your mind. And you will morph into them.'"

We all stared at Marco. "Trust me," he told us, "I _vividly_ remember the Andalite."

[Well, I couldn't remember exactly what Elfangor said at the time] Rachel said. [So it took me a minute to figure out how to…] She paused, searching for the right words. [You know what? Let's just call it acquiring. I had to figure out how to acquire Chance on my own.]

"What was it like?" Cassie asked her.

[Chance spaced out for a minute] Rachel replied. [He looked like he was going to go to sleep. Or pass out.]

"Did you hurt him?"

"Did you hurt yourself?" Marco followed.

[No to both. Chance seemed really relaxed.] Rachel giggled in our heads. [He actually licked me afterwards. Like he does when you stop scratching his favorite spot. So acquiring morphs should be easy.]

"Sure," Marco said. "Until we try to acquire sharks or something."

"Why would we need to be sharks?" Tobias wondered aloud.

"Earth is seventy-five percent water, Tobias," Marco answered, as though that explained anything.

[Acquiring is easy] Rachel assured us. [Morphing is the hard part. You really have to concentrate. If anything breaks it, you stop morphing and have to start over.]

"How long does it take?" Tobias asked.

[Seconds] Rachel replied. [A minute, at most?]

"Okay," Cassie said. "Anything else?"

Rachel thought for a minute. [Nope. Did I miss anything, Jake?]

"I don't know," I said. I looked over at Marco teasingly. "Did she miss anything, Marco?"

"If she did," Marco said, "I'm sure we'll figure it out in the worst possible way."

Tobias rolled his eyes. Marco chose to ignore him. [I'm going to demorph] Rachel announced.

"Why?" Cassie asked her.

[The floor itches. And I think I'm scaring the rabbit.] She walked back into the stall. Cassie closed the door behind her. [There's straw on my clothes] Rachel complained.

"Okay, fellow idiots," Marco said. "Now that class is over, what should we morph first?"

"I kind of like that snake," Tobias said.

"What use would that be?" I asked him.

Rachel stood up from behind the stall, fully human once again. There was straw in her hair, as well. "I wonder how that Hork-Bajir could handle snake venom."

Tobias shrugged. "I dunno. I just thought he looked cool."

"She," Cassie corrected. "And, Jake's right. Rattlesnakes can be lethal, but unless you're a rat, it can take days for someone to die from snakebite. Even dogs can live for a few hours."

"I'm not sticking my hands in a snake tank," Marco declared.

Tobias sniggered. "Maybe a cute, little bunny rabbit is more your speed?"

"Let's see you do it, then." Marco shot back.

"Alright." Tobias started moving towards the terrarium.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Why are guys so fucking dumb?"

Cassie cut Tobias off at the tank. "Better let me grab her," she told him. "You might accidentally hurt her." Tobias backed off. Cassie pulled a towel off a hook on the wall and carefully opened up the terrarium. The rattlesnake coiled up into a ball and shook her trademarked rattle. Unperturbed, Cassie gently dropped the towel on top of her and wrapped the rattlesnake up in it.

"She can't bite through the towel," Cassie told us, "So if you ever find one in your garage or whatever, this is how you want to pick it up."

Marco snorted. "Why would I want to do that?"

"So you can bring it to me to release out here," Cassie said patiently. "We have problems with mice, and unlike the exterminator, snakes work for free."

She carefully shifted the folds of the towel so that the snake's rattling tail was exposed. "Tobias, meet Mindy. She is what is known as the Northern Pacific rattlesnake. _Crotalus oreganus_."

"Did she just call that thing oregano?" Marco whispered loudly.

Tobias carefully reached out and grabbed Mindy's tail. "So I just concentrate on the snake, right?"

"Exactly," Rachel replied. She still hadn't put her clothes back on, but thankfully, the stall door was hiding everything of import. "Just picture the snake in your mind, and focus on that image."

Tobias closed his eyes. The tail suddenly went limp. And, with all of us watching, Tobias "acquired" the rattlesnake.

When he was done, the tail started rattling again. But Cassie took it in one hand. Her eyes closed as she started acquiring Mindy. Then, her eyes shot back open. "Wait. Can we have more than one morph? Is there a limit on how many things we can turn into?"

"Let's find out," Rachel said. She held her hands out. Cassie brought the snake to her. Rachel acquired it without any difficulty.

"I guess that answers that," Marco remarked. Cassie acquired the snake after Rachel, then held Mindy up towards Marco and I. We both shook our heads. Neither of us were ever huge fans of snakes.

As Cassie put the rattlesnake away, Tobias asked Rachel, "Now what?"

"Do what you did before," Rachel answered. "If you do it right, you'll start morphing."

Tobias stripped, dropping his clothes at his feet as he did. He closed his eyes again, and started morphing.

His arms suddenly shot up into his torso and disappeared, as though they were yanked out of sight by some unseen force. He wobbled unsteadily on his feet, threatening to topple over backwards.

"I got him!" Cassie ran forward and held Tobias as he fell. She managed to catch him as his body started shortening and narrowing into a thrashing tube of skin and muscle. His legs and feet twisted together to form a scaleless tail. His nose vanished completely, and his mouth and eyes moved up to the top and back of his head.

Cassie gently lay Tobias on the floor and backed away. Marco sat down heavily. I didn't blame him. Watching someone morph was proving to be disconcerting. And this was my second time watching it happen.

Tiny, overlapping triangles started sketching themselves across and down Tobias' body. They transformed into a mottled, scaled hide, the spitting image of the rattlesnake Tobias had acquired. When the pattern reached his tail they grew larger and thicker, and dried out to create the snake's rattle.

Finally, the morph was finished. Over six and a half feet of hopeless dweeb had become a little over three feet of danger noodle, coiled up in the middle of Tobias' clothes. I could see a tiny, forked tongue flicking in out of Tobias' mouth.

Cassie, more curious that anything, approached him. "Tobias? Can you hear me?"

"Do snakes even have ears?" Marco was still trying to laugh about all this. But he was white as a sheet. Freaking out.

"Not as we know them, but yes, Marco, snakes have ears." Cassie shut her eyes and concentrated. "But, now that I think about it, the way snakes hear might make speech hard to decipher. Maybe if -"

[Threats.]

It wasn't like it had been with Rachel as a dog. When her instincts overcame her, she had been excited and pushy. She was practically shouting. But, under the thrall of the rattlesnake, Tobias sounded just the opposite. His thoughts were more calm, and measured. As far as snake-Tobias was concerned, threats weren't alarming. Just…there.

That didn't stop him from addressing them, however. I pointed. "Cassie, he's moving!"

Tobias had started rapidly slithering towards the tool bench. Cassie scooped up his shirt and, like she had with the towel and Mindy, bundle Tobias up with it. In...thought-speak? Sure, let's call it that. In thought-speak, she spoke to Tobias.

[Tobias] Cassie said. [You're fine. There are no threats here. Just your friends.]

"Speak for yourself."

Rachel gave Marco a dirty look. "Marco? Try shutting up."

We waited. After a few seconds, Tobias spoke. [So.] he said with a nervous laugh. [That happened.]

"Are you okay, Tobias?" I asked.

[Was that Jake?]

[Yes] I said in thought-speak. I was warming up to the phrase. [Cassie says that snakes hear things weird. Could you understand me?] I glanced around the barn. [And can everyone hear me?]

[Yes] Cassie said. She smiled. [This is so cool! We should always talk like this.]

[I dunno] Marco said. [This feels like something that could get distracting.]

[Can't imagine why] Rachel said sarcastically. Marco winked at her.

[I couldn't understand Jake, but I recognized his voice] Tobias told us. [It was like…you know how a phone sounds when it vibrates on a desk? It was kind of like that. I could make out a couple words though. Like my name.]

[What's it like?] Cassie asked him. [Being a snake?]

[Surreal] he answered. [I'm me, but...different? I have my own thoughts and personality, but I have an entirely different set of priorities. I have new urges. Like, get out of the open. Stay warm. And hunt. Man, does this thing want to hunt. Urgent, urgent urges, but at the same time, I'm in no hurry to do anything. Other than find a hole to curl up and sleep in.]

[Sounds like me after school] Cassie said.

[Maybe I should morph back.] Tobias said. [How do I do that?]

[Just concentrate on your human shape] Rachel told him.

[Okay.] Cassie set Tobias back down and gave him some room. After Tobias was human again, he put his clothes back on.

Marco snorted. "That's going to get old quick. Having to change in and out of our clothes all the time?"

"Yeah," I said thoughtfully. "We'll have to stash clothes everywhere we frequent, too. So we won't have to figure out how to carry them wherever we go."

"We never said we were doing this," Marco pointed out.

"No, _you_ never said you were doing this," Rachel said snidely.

"And I'm still not." Marco stood back up. "Like I said. This is real life. I know what you're getting into. You're all only judging me because you don't."

Rachel glared at him. "Did it ever occur to you that we actually do? My dad's an Iraq vet. I've heard his stories."

"That sounds like a healthy household," Marco said. "You and Jordan, sitting on the floor, listening to Daddy talk about all the insurgents he killed? No wonder you're nuts."

Rachel vaulted out of the stall and advanced on him. I barely managed to get in front of her before she clobbered Marco. Marco backed away, but he laughed as he did. "Admit it, Rachel! You've always wanted to be a hero. This is just your excuse to be one. If it weren't for the Yeerks, you would have had to wait until you graduated before joining the Marines or some shit. But then an alien fell from the sky and dropped superpowers in your lap, and now, you're the Amazing Dog-Girl."

"Eat shit, Marco!"

"Enough."

Cassie gently pushed me out from between Rachel and Marco. "Marco," she said, "I understand where you're coming from, I really do. But you need to understand that you're already in this. Whether you want to be or not. Because if the Yeerks ever find out that you were there when Elfangor died, they will come for you. And your dad. If you truly want to protect him, and yourself, you're going to need to fight the Yeerks at some point. And I think you're smart enough to know that means you need to learn how to morph, and help us win this thing."

Marco looked away from her. Rachel smirked. Until Cassie turned on her. "And Rachel? _You_ need to understand that some of us aren't as brave as you are. Marco is allowed to be afraid. Hell, _I'm_ afraid. This is a big deal. When Marco or any other one of us starts voicing their issues, we need to be receptive and listen. Even if we think they're just being scared. Okay?"

Rachel took a breath, and nodded. Now Marco was smirking. He thought he'd won. But Cassie's little speech had reached more of us than him and Rachel. I walked around them and went to the cages.

"Jake?" Tobias said. "What's up?" They were all watching me.

"I think I'm ready to morph," I said to Tobias. Marco stopped smirking.

"Okay." Cassie followed me. "You passed on rattlesnake. What did you have in mind?"

I looked between the rabbit and the crow. "Do you have any animals here other than these?"

"Not patients, no," Cassie said. "But we have some steer and a pair of horses out in the pasture. You want me to get one for you?"

"Steer?"

"Bulls," Cassie explained. "Neutered to make them more calm and docile."

"We should try that with you two," Rachel remarked, looking from Tobias and Marco. Both of them looked queasy at the thought. Cassie laughed.

But I was gazing at the crow. It was in a large cage, perched on a wooden rod crudely Super-Glued in place. It was watching me. I read once that crows were wickedly intelligent, and this one was convincing me that was true. It locked eyes with me, like it was interested in me.

Did it understand what was happening? Had the crow been watching us turn from kids to dogs and snakes and back again, and know what was going on? Did it realize we were on a mission and in dire need of help?

Probably not.

But, maybe it did.

"The crow," I said. "I think I'll morph the crow."


	10. Chapter 10 - The Crow

The crow calmly watched me as Cassie opened its cage. I reached inside and placed two fingers on its left wing. Like Rachel had told us to do, I closed my eyes and pictured the crow in my head. I imagined its intelligent eyes, its blackened beak. I concentrated on the warmth of its body underneath my fingertips.

I felt my fingers tingling slightly. I opened my eyes, and saw the crow close its own. And I acquired the crow.

"I'm done," I said. I stepped back from the cage. Cassie latched the door shut. The crow shook itself and puffed its feathers at me. I started pulling my clothes off.

Marco walked over to the workbench and drew his wallet. He pulled a single bill out of it, slapped the money down on the bench, and gave Rachel a look. "Five dollars says he chickens out,"

Rachel reached into her back pocket, pulled out a wad of ones, and counted them out on the table. "Done."

Cassie and Tobias looked at me expectantly. I stood with my back to the wall of cages and kennels, naked and self-conscious. I've always thought I looked good. But that didn't mean everyone else did.

I swallowed my embarrassment, and concentrated on the crow.

I expected it to hurt. Rachel and Tobias hadn't shown any signs of discomfort, but that didn't stop me from dreading morphing. I mean, it looked it should hurt. So, the first thing I noticed was that it didn't. In fact, I barely felt anything at all.

"Whoa."

I opened my eyes. Marco was watching me with a grin. "That's very cool," he said. "Feel your hair, man. Your head is covered in feathers!"

I ran my fingers through my hair. He was right. My hair had been completely replaced by long, soft feathers that ran all the way down to the small of my back.

Rachel chuckled happily and picked the money off of the workbench. I had won her the bet.

I closed my eyes again and resumed the morph. Now that I was paying attention, I could feel the hair on my arms, chest, and...other places turning into feathers and spreading across my body. Except on my legs. My legs started itching like crazy. I touched my right thigh and felt scales.

Then, the shrinking started. My stomach lurched liked I was falling, even though I knew I wasn't. I instinctively threw my arms out in front of me and noticed that they weren't moving like they should. Instead of my hands moving from my thighs to my front, they came from my sides. And they felt shorter. I heard a flapping noise as I frantically, and uselessly, tried to catch myself in a fall I wasn't actually suffering.

_Do...do I have wings?_ I opened my eyes. There was a long, black cone where my nose and mouth should have been. I had a beak, too.

I stopped shrinking. My butt twitched. I twisted my neck to look behind me and saw a black body ending in feathers. I wiggled my butt and saw the feathers move.

I spread my arms and inspected them. Yes, I had wings. They stretched out what seemed like a full meter, but was in fact a lot smaller. My wingspan was little more than a yard.

Was I done? I wasn't sure. [Hey, guys, I -]

Thoughts. Sudden, intrusive thoughts.

I could see everything. There were things around me. Things that moved and made noises. They might be predators.

But, they couldn't fly. And I could. So I stopped caring.

"Jake?"

Wait. That's my name.

"Jake, you alright?"

[Yeah.]

Movement behind me. I turned to look. And I saw...a crow! Like me!

She was in a cage! She was in danger!

I flew.

"Jake!"

Now the predators came for me. Had they put her in the cage? One of them, short and dark, reached for me. Trying to grab me.

Rude.

I avoided her easily and took to the air. I saw open sky to my left, but I couldn't leave yet. My flock was under attack. I had to protect my sister crow.

I circled the barn rafters and dove at the cage. I remembered seeing one of the predators open the cage, remembered the latch that held the door shut. If I could undo the latch, my flock would be free. Then we could escape, and gather the rest of our flock to punish those who had attacked us.

"Tobias, Rachel, the doors!"

"What? Why?"

"He's trying to spring the crow!"

"On it!"

The predators were calling to each other. Meaningless. I landed on the cage and knocked it over. It crashed to the floor. The occupant squawked in protest. She'd thank me later. I landed next to the cage and worked the latch. The door fell open. My sister crow hopped to her feet and out of the cage.

Now, we fly. I moved for the sky.

No! Where was it?! Where there had been sky and air and sun was now a barrier of wood. I banked hard and barely avoided splattering across the barn doors. I flapped around the barn, seeking a way out.

"There, there. That's a good bird."

Below me, the short, dark one was holding my sister. I felt a flash of anger, thinking the predator aimed to devour her, but my sister was at ease. She was resting comfortably on the dark one's shoulder. I landed on a rafter to watch, curious.

The short one took my sister to a large, white box I had not noticed before, when I first walked into -

_Wait. Walked?_

Anyway, there was a white box. The dark one opened it and pulled out a clear baggie. She opened the bag, pulled something out, and offered it to my sister. She at it. I cocked my head.

The dark one (the Cassie?) offered one up to me? "Jake? Do you want a cricket?"

Did I?

Yes.

But...if I took the cricket, the Cassie might get me. That was not desired.

On the other hand, she had a cricket. And I wanted that cricket.

"Cassie, what are you doing?" the tallest predator asked. That one, I remembered, was called a Tobias.

"Crows are smart, social birds," the Cassie said. "They learn from each other. If he sees that the other crow is comfortable and happy with me, maybe he will be, too."

"Works for me," the shortest one said. The Marco.

The annoying, funny, asshole Marco.

The Cassie put my sister back in the cage. My sister seemed comfortable. I relaxed.

The Cassie patted her shoulder. "If you want the cricket, you have to come down here."

No.

Yes.

No.

Yes?

No!

Fuck it. I swooped down and landed on her shoulder. She held up a cricket. I ate it.

"There, there," the Cassie said. "There's a good bird."

Later, much later, I would feel grossed out and humiliated. I would remember eating the cricket from between her fingers like a pet, while she praised and cooed my name until I came to my senses enough to realize who I was and what I was doing, while Marco and Rachel laughed and laughed and laughed.

But all I could think at that moment was, _I fucking love crickets._


	11. Chapter 11 - The Benefits

I demorphed and got dressed. Rachel finally got dressed. Then we all just sat for a minute. It was just after five. We'd spent a solid hour debating and morphing.

"So," I finally said. "Are we doing this?"

Rachel nodded. "Yes," Tobias said. Cassie nodded, too.

Marco raised his hand. "Do we get matching uniforms?"

Then, we all busted up laughing.

It was insanity! We were barely halfway through high school. And we were talking about bringing down an intergalactic empire of space slugs. With lasers and starfighters and soldiers straight out of our nightmares. We were hosed. And we knew it.

But, we were the only free-minded humans on the entire planet who knew anything about the Yeerks. If we didn't fight back, no one would.

"I still think we should tell someone," Marco said.

Rachel started to correct him. "The Andalite said -"

"I know what he said," Marco interrupted. "But, think about it. Okay, fine, we can't go to the cops or the news. But what about the feds? What about, say, the President?"

"What about her?" Tobias said. "What if she's a Controller, too?"

"She might be," Marco said. "On the other hand, she'd be one of the hardest people on Earth to get to. She's the most powerful person in the country, and the one least likely to be a Controller."

"It's a thought," Cassie said.

No one said anything else. "Disk first," I finally said. "We'll need that if we're going to convince anyone of anything."

Rachel nodded in agreement. "We'll need to morph if we want to look for it."

"Why?" Rachel asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to find it as ourselves?"

"We are known to have been in Deathburg the night Elfangor crashed," Marco explained. "If we're seen again, someone might get suspicious. At the very least, we should go in as...something else."

"Crows," I said simply.

Cassie nodded. "I think that would be best. Crows are known to flock, so we could go in as a group without drawing too much attention. Plus, they're fast, and they can fly, so we could get out fast if we had to."

"And," Tobias added, "we have snake morphs if we need to look under stuff, or down in cracks and holes."

"And if that Hork-Bajir shows up," Rachel said, "I can morph Chance and mess him up."

"You think so?" Marco said doubtfully.

"I brained him with a rock last time," Rachel said with a grin. "I could take him easy."

Cassie rolled her eyes. But Tobias and I laughed. Rachel's bravado was contagious. And she really had taken him out with a rock.

"We're well-equipped to deal with whatever we find in Deathburg," I assured everyone. Well, mainly Marco. "Or, we will be. Once we all pick up a crow morph. And, Marco?"

Marco leered at me. "What?"

"You and I should acquire the snake, as well," I told him. "Just in case we can't fly out of somewhere.

Marco bowed his head mockingly. "Your wish is my command." And, despite myself, I laughed, again.

Marco, Rachel, Tobias, and Cassie all acquired the crow. And with Cassie's help, Marco and I acquired the rattlesnake. Then, we opened the barn doors back up and morphed into crows. I pointed out that the others should work on learning to control the crow's instincts before we went out on a mission.

It turned out to be a good idea. They were circling Cassie's property for almost twenty minutes before they finally got a grip. But afterward?

[Flying is the best!] Marco shouted. [This is awesome!]

It was a bright day out. Spring was just starting to give way to summer, and where we lived, it got hot. I'd always dreaded this time of year, where the temperature climbed into the lower hundreds and stayed there until almost October. But now the heat was appreciated. It rose off of the asphalt road beneath us in a shimmering wave, catching us underneath our wings and lifting us hundreds of feet into the air.

I guess a normal kid would have been terrified, floating up in the air supported by nothing but air and particle physics. But normal kids didn't turn into birds. But they do zoom around hootin' and hollerin', as my dad would say. And we did plenty of that, flapping around like idiots and calling out to each other.

[Cassie! Jake! Watch this!]

A couple hundred feet above me, Rachel tucked her wings in and dropped like a rock. She fell, faster and faster, towards the grass and trees below. But, right when it seemed that she would hit the ground, she spread her wings and went shooting across it quick as a bullet.

[Yahahahaha!]

[Okay, Rachel, that was cool.] I admitted

[Try it!]

I laughed. [Pass.]

[I'm game.] Cassie piped up. She dove after Rachel. I glided over to a tree to watch, just in time to see Cassie go streaking past in a black blur.

[That was fun] she remarked.

Marco went next. He went by faster than Cassie and Rachel, but no less entertained. [I wonder how fast that was?] he called out as he flapped for altitude.

[No idea] Cassie answered. [But, I'll have to keep an eye out for falcons. If we can, we should acquire one. Peregrines can dive at speeds over two hundred miles per hour!]

[Seriously?] Marco landed next to me. [Cool!]

[Me next.] Tobias said. I watched him dive and go zooming by. He cheered. We all joined him.

So focused on Tobias were we, I almost missed the shadow spring from atop one of the scrub oaks from across the field. It dropped to about fifty feet from the ground and made a beeline for Tobias. Tobias flew on, not noticing anything was amiss.

Crow eyes were better than human eyes, but only just. It took me a few seconds to identify the shadow properly. But the moment I saw the hooked beak and talons, I realized what it was.

[Tobias, on your left!]

Too late. The hawk hit Tobias like a guided missile. It grabbed him in its talons and took to the air, dragging Tobias along with it.

[Tobias!]


	12. Chapter 12 - The Hawk

[Aaaaaah! Help!]

[Tobias!]

Even carrying Tobias' weight, the hawk was moving at a good clip. It made a U-turn and flapped like mad, racing for the trees.

Cassie was shouting. [Mob it!]

[What?!]

[It's what crows do!] She flew after the hawk. [Mob it! Let the crow brains take over!]

[Get up above it and force it down!] Rachel cried. [Protect the flock!]

[Aaaaaah!]

[I got him!]

I saw a crow dropping from over a hundred feet up. Marco, racing for the hawk. Behind and below, Rachel and Cassie swooped upward.

I dove from my tree. Had to protect the flock.

[Marco, alley-oop!]

Marco, thankfully, knew instantly what I had in mind. He angled his dive and hit the hawk in the back of the head. The hawk dropped ten feet down and fell back, where he lined up perfectly for my attack.

I pecked him sharply in the back and zoomed past him. The hawk dropped further.

Then Cassie was all over him, pecking and cawing. The hawk screeched in protest and dropped Tobias. He hit the ground in a bloody heap. Cassie and I peeled off and went after him. The hawk kept going, still trying to reach the trees.

[No, you don't!] Rachel raked the hawk's back with her claws and sent the hapless bird face-first into the ground. It rolled across the grass and lay still.

I landed next to Tobias. He wasn't moving. Blood poured from his back and oozed across his wings. [Tobias!]

No response. Marco landed across from me. [Is he alright?]

[He's bleeding out!] Cassie fluttered down and started demorphing. [I'll have to get him into the barn.]

[Tobias!] Rachel circled above us. [Can you hear us? Say something!]

Again, no response. The crow felt a pang of sadness. The flock was suffering.

Finally…[Ow.]

[Tobias!]

[Present.] He stirred. [Seriously, though. Ow.]

[He's good] Marco said. [Way to take a hit, dweeb. I'm impressed.]

[Thanks. I think.]

Rachel sighed in relief. Cassie, now human, gathered him up. "He is not okay. I need to patch him up." She raced for the barn. We followed.

[This doesn't look too strange] Marco said with a forced laugh. [Three birds chasing a girl in her birthday suit? Nothing wrong here!]

[Don't do drugs, kids] Tobias said weakly. Cassie snorted.

Tobias joking was good, right? If he could laugh, he was okay. Cassie's parents were vets. She knew what she was doing. Tobias was in good hands. He'd be fine.

Right?

Back in the barn, Cassie lay Tobias gently on the workbench and threw on her shirt and jeans. "In case my dad comes back," she explained. Cassie pulled a white box with a red cross on it off the wall and started pulling out gauze and other things. The rest of us landed and demorphed.

Wait.

"Tobias, demorph!" I shouted.

[What?]

"Jake, he's hurt!" Cassie told me. "I can stitch his wounds closed easier if -"

"No, Jake's right," Marco interrupted. "Remember the Andalite? When…" He swallowed. "When the other one, Visser Three, was taunting him, Elfangor attacked him. Dismembered him, almost."

"But," I finished for him, "when Visser Three morphed and demorphed, he was whole and healthy, again. Like nothing had happened at all."

"So if Tobias demorphs -" Rachel started.

" - he'll recover instantly!" Cassie shouted.

[Cool] Tobias muttered. [Worth a shot.]

He closed his eyes. For a moment, nothing happened. I was worried that Tobias had passed out. Until, finally, fingers started growing from underneath his wing feathers.

When Tobias was human again, he sat up and felt along his back. Cassie peaked behind him. "Like nothing happened," she observed. Tobias sighed in relief. Marco tossed him his jeans. Wordlessly, we all got dressed.

"What happened to the hawk?" Tobias asked us.

"I messed it up," Rachel said proudly.

"It hit the dirt pretty hard," I told him. "We hurt it pretty bad. It won't bother us again."

Cassie left the barn. "Where are you going?" Marco called after her.

"To check on that hawk," she replied.

"Why?" Marco scoffed. "Bird's an asshole."

"He was just being a hawk, Marco," Cassie said.

"It attacked us!"

"It was hunting," Cassie responded. "It was a normal hawk doing normal hawk things. And we hurt it."

"We were defending ourselves," Marco pointed out.

"I understand that," Cassie said. "But, we're safe now. And that hawk wouldn't be laying in a field, broken and afraid, if we hadn't been there. I can help it. So I am."

Rachel shoved past Marco. "I'll go with you, Cass."

"Same," I piped up.

Tobias finished tying his shoes. "Wait for me."

"Really?" Marco asked him. "That thing opened you up like a bag of chips, and you want to help Cassie save it?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

Tobias stood up. "Because Cassie's right. It was just a hawk being a hawk. It wasn't personal."

Marco laughed out loud. "Are we going to do this with the Yeerks? Beat them senseless and patch them back up?"

I opened my mouth to respond. "No," Tobias replied, cutting me off. "Because the Yeerks want to hurt me. They're the assholes. Maybe you should try being less of one."

Marco's eyes narrowed. The two of them stood still, glaring up and down at each other. Cassie and Rachel stayed where they were, watching the exchange silently.

I forced my way between them. "Let's just go get the stupid bird. Alright?" I gave Marco a look. He rolled his eyes and stormed out of the barn. Cassie and Rachel followed him.

"He's going to be a problem," Tobias told me.

"What makes you say that?"

Tobias closed his eyes. He took a long, calming breath. "All I know, Jake, is that you and Marco, and your brother, you guys don't get to pick on me anymore. You had better learn that. Today."

With that, Tobias exited the barn. I trailed after him.

We caught up to the others easily enough. They were standing together in the field. Cassie, holding the hawk like a newborn baby. Rachel, looking solemn. And Marco, arms crossed. He avoided Tobias' gaze.

"What's up?"

Cassie shook her head sadly. "You were right. The hawk hit hard. It's…there's nothing I can do for it."

The hawk was breathing hard. I ran my fingers along the hawk's chest. It was like touching a bag of gravel.

"I pulverized it, Jake," Rachel said. "_I_ did."

"Had to," Marco said coldly. "It was the hawk or us."

"But it was just a hawk," Cassie mumbled. "Just doing its thing. And if we hadn't been here…"

Tobias reached for the hawk. He gently lay his hand on its head and closed his eyes. The hawk's breathing slowed.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm acquiring it," Tobias answered. "If every animal gets calm and peaceful as it happens, maybe I can ease its pain for a minute."

"That's better than nothing, I guess," said Rachel. Marco snorted, but otherwise kept silent.

I watched the hawk's chest rise and fall, slower and slower. When Tobias finally pulled his hand away, it stopped moving.

After a while, Cassie respectfully lay the hawk in the grass. She muttered something about burying it later. When I felt that the moment had passed, I said, "It's late. We have to find that disk. Let's meet at Deathburg in the morning. Eight o' clock. Is everyone okay with that?"

They were. We piled back into Cassie's van, and she drove us home.


	13. Chapter 13 - The Mission

Saturday morning, seven o' clock.

On the way back from Cassie's, Marco pointed out that it would draw suspicion if we took Cassie's van everywhere we went. He suggested we all go to Deathburg as crows. It was a good idea, seeing as we were planning on searching the place in the same morph.

I opened my bedroom window and stripped out of my pajamas. I stood in the middle of my room for a moment, shivering as a cool morning breeze blew in.

_What am I doing?_

Marco was right. We shouldn't be doing this. We should be figuring out who we could trust and how best to protect ourselves, and our families. This was too big for us. We needed to make sure the right people knew about the Yeerk threat and let them handle it.

But, Rachel and Cassie were right, too. Elfangor and the Andalites died protecting humanity. Us. And we might be the only free-minded humans on Earth who knew about Visser Three and the Yeerks. If we didn't stop them, nobody else would.

I could almost imagine a little voice in my head saying, _You're kids. You can't handle this._

Crow, I thought. And I morphed.

One week ago, almost to the minute, I was lying awake in bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering if I had dreamed everything. Elfangor. Visser Three. A walking knife rack named Sub-Visser preparing to murder me.

And now, one-hundred-and-sixty-eight hours later, I was a boy cosplaying a bird, preparing flap around an abandoned construction site looking for a dead alien's LiveJournal backup.

Life comes at you hard.

It took me a minute to find the place. Streets and landmarks look different from above, and my crow brain was more interested in scouting for breakfast. There was a flattened chipmunk in the middle of the road that actually made my stomach growl. Yuck.

But, I eventually figured out what was what, and managed to find Deathburg after an hour. I could see my friends roosting on the rooftop. Like me, they were all crows. They were arranged in a semicircle around the massive hole in the center of the half-built mall.

Directly above where the Andalite had died. I shuddered internally and did a headcount. Everyone was here. Even Marco.

[Hi, Jake.] Cassie called up to me.

[You're late] Rachel grumbled.

[Sorry] I said. I went in for a landing.

I misjudged the distance, hit too hard, and rolled across the rooftop, a ball of wings and feathers.

[Nice landing] Tobias said with a laugh.

[Are you okay?] Cassie asked me.

[Nothing broken] I said. I hopped to my feet. [Other than my dignity.]

[It's okay] Marco told me. [You showed up just in time for us to leave.]

[We're not leaving] Rachel said flatly.

[Why are we leaving?] I asked.

[We're not] she repeated.

[We've encountered a problem.] Cassie answered.

[It's not a problem.] Rachel said.

[It's a problem.] Cassie and Marco said in unison.

I decided to ask Tobias. [What's the problem?]

He looked towards the edge of the hole. [See for yourself.]

I hopped over and peered over the edge.

Elfangor's ship was gone. In fact, if I didn't know better, I could have said aliens had never landed. There was no evidence that the Yeerks or Andalite had ever been here. Not even debris from the Yeerk ship Elfangor torched. Anyone could walk through here and not see anything out of the ordinary.

Except for two things.

First, there were holes in the ground. They formed perfect circles as big around as monster truck tires, and they went down further than I could see. Almost straight down, in fact. And, even under the light of the rising sun, I could see a red glow coming from deep inside of each. There were several of these holes below us, and I could see more like them further back inside.

And second, crawling in and out of those holes were the fattest, most disgusting-looking worms I had ever seen.

They were over twelve feet long. Almost as big around as the holes themselves. So thick that if I wanted to hug one, my arms wouldn't have reached even halfway around their bodies. Around the tops of their tubular bodies were four blood-red eyes, each shaking and quivering like balls of Jello. And at the very end, pointing straight out in front of them, was a large, gaping mouth filled with rows and rows of shark-like teeth. Every so often, a long tongue would rise from their jaws and taste the air, before zipping back out of sight.

Some of them held the upper third of their bodies up off the ground, propelling themselves with dozens of sharp, jointed appendages that ran along both sides of the lower thirds of their bodies. Their arms, for lack of a better word, ended in lobster-like claws the size of my entire crow body. Those that stayed low to the ground weaved across the floor as they moved, like the Devil's idea of a centipede.

There were more than I could keep track of, scuttling all over the place. Some of them went down into the holes and vanished. Others crawled back out carrying large rocks or chunks of concrete, dropping them just outside and moving on to a different hole. All of them moved like they were on a mission.

[Oh] I said simply.

[Yeah] Marco said. ['Oh.']

[It's not a problem] Rachel said again. [We do like we said. Fly in, grab the disk, and fly out. Easy.]

[And what happens when they see you?]

[They see a bird.] Rachel stretched her wings. [Isn't that the point of morphing?]

[Can't argue with that] Tobias commented.

[Regardless] Cassie said, looking at Rachel, [a sense of caution never hurt anyone.]

Rachel puffed up. [I still say we should go for it.]

[I agree.] I said.

[And you always will] Marco replied.

[We came here for a reason] I told him. [We knew it'd be dangerous. That's why we came in morph. Rachel's right. We're just gonna grab the disk and go.]

[You don't even know if it's still down there] Marco said. [I mean, those are obviously Yeerks. They've obviously been here for a while. Probably since last weekend. How do you know they didn't find it already?]

[I don't] I said. [But it'll be easy to check.]

[Okay] Tobias said. [How?]

I aimed my beak down below. [You guys see what I see?]

Cassie hopped over next to Tobias. Rachel and Marco made their way over to me. They all followed my gaze. Cassie blinked. [Is that where we were when...]

[Yep.] I was looking directly at the doorway we were all cowering behind the night...the night we found Elfangor. [That] I said, [is where I dropped the disk.]

[That's all fine and good, Jake] Marco said, [but you'll be seen the second you fly down there.]

[Again] Rachel said patiently, [all they'll see is a bird.]

[Look, just for the sake of argument, let's say they'll care and attack him.] Marco puffed up his feathers. [Because we don't know what those things are or how they'll react. I'm preaching sense, here.]

[I think we're still good] Tobias said. [I've been comparing the size of the worms with the size of the door, and I'm willing to bet they're too big to get in.]

We did the same. [Those _are_ some fat worms] Rachel observed.

[I think he's on to something!] Cassie exclaimed. [Look closely. They're digging and moving all over the atrium and walkways, and inside the store areas, but none of them are going through any actual doorways.]

She was right. The worms moved hither and yon, but somehow, all of them avoided going through every visible doorway. [So if we flew in, none of them would be able to follow us] I speculated.

[And, if they blocked our exit, we could still leave the way we did the other night] Cassie finished.

[What?] Marco said with a sardonic laugh. [Running and screaming?]

[We have a plan] Rachel announced. [Let's do it.]

[As you say, Khaleesi. You first.]

[_No problemo_.] Rachel jumped from her perch and dove. She folded her wings and dropped neatly through the doorway.


	14. Chapter 14 - The Worms

Rachel's path took her directly over the demon-centipedes' heads. She got within a foot of the one closest to the doorway, so close there was no way it didn't feel the breeze from her passing.

The worms didn't even blink.

[Cool.] Rachel laughed. [I'm in.]

[Congratulations] Marco told her.

I hopped to the very edge of the hole. [Do you see it?]

[Does it look like a giant washer?]

[A what?] Tobias, Marco, and I asked.

[Seriously?] I actually felt Rachel roll her eyes. It seemed emotions could be conveyed through thought-speak as easily as speech.

[Just try picking it up] Cassie suggested. [We'll educate the boys later.]

[Oh! Are washers those metal rings you run bolts through?]

[Look at that, Marco, you _do_ have a brain.]

[That should be it] I said quickly, cutting off Marco's comeback. [Grab it and fly back up.]

There was a brief pause. [Um, guys? We have a problem. It's too heavy for me to lift. I can't fly while I'm holding it.]

[Great] Tobias said.

[What do we do now, Jake?] Marco asked.

[What?] I laughed nervously. [Why are you asking me?]

[Because, man, you're running this show.] He looked over at me. [Right?]

[I am?]

[Are you not?] Cassie asked. She sounded confused. [Isn't Jake in charge?]

[Should I come back up?]

[No, Rachel] I said without thinking. [Just sit tight.]

[So now you are in charge?]

[I don't know!] I said. [When did we decide that?]

[Around when you made us all turn into birds] Marco said helpfully.

[I didn't make us do anything!]

Cassie cocked her head. [So who's in charge?]

[I'll be in charge] Rachel instantly offered.

[I like that] Tobias said.

Marco pecked at a pebble. [I don't.]

[I don't either] Cassie agreed.

[Why the fuck not.]

[Rachel?] Cassie answered carefully. [I love you. You're amazing. But you're too impulsive and temperamental. You know that.]

[Well…]

We waited. [Your face is impulsive] Rachel lamely finished.

[Okay. Not Rachel.] Marco looked around at the rest of us. [Who else wants to be the leader?]

[Pass] Cassie said. [I can barely manage calculus.]

[Same.] Tobias started preening. [And I'm doing great in calculus.]

Cassie hopped closer to him. [Who do you have?]

Tobias looked up. [Bernstein.]

[Can I see your notes later?]

[So, Jake] Marco said, interrupting Tobias and Cassie, [that leaves you. Or me.]

Rachel's laughter filled our heads. Tobias leaned around me and gave Marco a look.

[I vote Jake] Cassie said politely.

[Do I get a vote?] I asked them.

[Sure] Marco said. [Let's all vote. All in favor say aye.]

[Aye.] Cassie.

[Aye.] Tobias.

[Aye.] Marco

Rachel hesitated. [Aye.]

[Let's…let's just settle this later.] I looked towards Rachel, hiding behind the doorway. [We're in the middle of something, let's just get that done first.]

[Aye, aye, captain] Marco responded.

I ignored him. [Okay. Rachel? Tell me what's going on, cousin.]

[I already said I can't lift it.]

Duh. [Can you still move it? Can you shove it around?]

Silence.

Then, an audible ping.

The worms stopped.

[They didn't hear that, right?] Rachel asked.

Sssryyeeeeeeah!

[Ah, shit.]

The closest worms swarmed the door.

The good news was that Tobias was right. The worms couldn't fit themselves through the doorway. And the more they tried to force their way in, the harder it got.

But there were still over a dozen aliens gunning for Rachel.

[Rachel!]

[I'm good] she said calmly. [I'm demorphing.]

[What?!]

[Don't do that!] Marco shouted. [They'll see who you are!]

[I can't pick up the disk as a crow] Rachel explained, [and I'm far back enough that they can't see me. It's fine!]

[Jake, we've got to distract them before they see her!]

I felt Rachel roll her eyes again. [It's not like they'll recognize me.]

[Doesn't matter. Marco's right.] I dropped off the ledge.

[Jake!] Cassie shouted.

[You wanted me in charge?] I yelled behind me. [Follow my lead!]

Tobias followed behind me silently. Cassie and Marco weren't far behind.

[What are we doing?]

[Alfred Hitchcock!]

[What?!]

I went for the lead worm and raked it with my claws. And, honestly, I expected to just bounce off. They weren't armored or anything, but their hides looked pretty thick.

Instead, my tiny crow talons cut deep, leaving long gashes running up its body. Lime-green blood dripped freely across my feet as I turned away from the wall and flapped for altitude. Behind me, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco all found their targets and stayed with me.

I landed back on the ledge, feeling proud of myself. If that didn't get their attention, nothing would.

It didn't. What happened next was much, much worse.

The four wounded worms turned on each other. And the rest turned on them. The worms all dropped their gaping maws on top of their bleeding cohorts and started tearing into them. They ripped away huge chunks of meat from their bodies, threw their heads back, and swallowed.

[Aaaaah!!]

[What the Hell?!]

[What?] Rachel shouted. [What's happening?!] Then, [Oh, my God…]

Worms came crawling in from all over. It was a feeding frenzy.

One of the worms accidentally bit another. The hoard swarmed it.

And then, one of the worms accidentally bit another. The hoard swarmed that one, too.

And then, one of the worms accidentally bit another.

The hoard swarmed that one, too.

On and on and on, until what had once been a massive, seething mass of carnage became six, fat worms greedily slurping up the remains of their brothers.

Some of the wounded were eaten eating their own dismembered bodies.

I saw a malinois poke its head cautiously around the doorway. In its mouth was Elfangor's disk.

[What in the world did you do?] Rachel asked me.


	15. Chapter 15 - The Disk

We regrouped in a thick cluster of trees nearby. Four crows, and a dog carrying an Andalite hard drive.

I landed on the ground and demorphed. I needed to be in my own body for a minute, nudity be damned. The others copied me.

Because I'm the leader, apparently.

Rachel was examining the disk.

Tobias and Cassie looked over at me, waiting.

Marco crossed his arms and scowled at the ground.

My cousin. Her best friend. My best friend. The school punching bag. And me. All that stood between humanity and annihilation.

I nodded at the disk. "How's it look?"

"Not a scratch on it," Rachel said.

"Cool," Marco said. "So let's power it up."

"Here?" Tobias asked.

"Why not?" Marco spread his arms and did a little spin. "There's no one around, and it's not like we've got anything better to do."

Rachel tossed me the disk. I caught it and stared at it.

"Well?" Marco said.

I flipped it over in my hands. There were no markings or anything else on it. It was just a gold-colored disk about the size of my entire hand, with a large hole through the middle. I didn't see anything that looked as though it would do whatever was needed to see what was on the disk.

"I don't know how." I said.

Marco groaned.

"Not helping, Marco."

"Try thought-speaking to it," Cassie suggested.

"Okay. Um…" I closed my eyes and focused. [On.]

Nothing.

"Try again," Rachel told me.

[On] I said more forcefully.

Tobias chuckled. "'Computer, on?''

"Good idea!" I held the disk at eye level. [Computer. On.]

Still nothing. But I saw Cassie's eyes light up. "Elfangor said these were his personal logs, right? We just have to use his name!"

"How so?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Marco snatched the disk from my hands. [Computer. Access Prince's Log. Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.]

[Welcome, Prince Elfangor.]

We all stared.

"Unlike _you_ dweebs," Marco told us, "I watch _Star Trek._"

[Please enter access code.]

"God, damn it."

Rachel snorted. "Good. I was worried that Marco was becoming the smart one."

"Ha, ha." Marco passed the disk back to me. I silently took it from him.

"What kind of a password would an alien admiral use?" Tobias wondered.

"The kind that doesn't use our alphabet," Marco answered. "Betchu money."

"Everything we've used so far has been thought-speak," Tobias pointed out.

"Can you say for sure we don't have to actually say any letters?" Marco asked him. "No Foxtrot-Unicorn nonsense?"

"Uniform," Rachel corrected.

"Whatever." Marco crossed his arms again.

"Jake," Cassie said, "you were in his ship. Think. Was there anything there that might help? Something that could inspire or hint at a password?"

Marco laughed. "You think the commander of an interstellar fleet would leave the password for his journal out on his desk?"

I rolled my eyes. "Marco, the password for your dad's PC is just 'password' spelled with dollar signs."

"That doesn't mean anything!"

"My dad's is just one-two-three-four-six," Cassie said helpfully.

"Gramma's is a Bible verse," Tobias added.

"That," Marco paused, "is actually not bad."

"Psalms 1:1-2?" Rachel asked him.

Tobias blinked. "How'd you guess?"

Marco laughed. "Nevermind."

"There was a holographic picture," I said, answering Cassie's question. "Of his family. He told us. His parents and brother."

"Anything else?" Cassie pressed.

I thought for a minute. "No. Nothing."

"Maybe it's one of their names!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Did he name anyone specifically?" Tobias asked.

"Yes! It was, um..." Marco started snapping his fingers at me. "Help me out, man, what was it?"

"Aximili!" Cassie shouted.

[Computer] I said. [Enter access code. Aximili.]

Pause. [Access denied.]

Pause. [Two attempts left.]

"Nobody say anything else," Cassie said instantly.

"No shit," Marco agreed.

"Try, 'Aximili-Sirinial-Shamtul,'" Tobias suggested.

Marco glared at him. "Did we fucking stutter?"

[Computer. Enter access code. Aximili-Sirinial-Shamtul.]

"Jake!"

Pause. [Access denied.]

Nobody spoke.

[One attempt left.]

Rachel growled. Cassie frowned at the disk. Tobias laughed without humor.

Marco started morphing. Feathers grew from his torso and arms and he shrank.

"What are doing?" I asked him.

[Leaving] he answered simply. [You giant, thundering dumbass.]

"What? Why?"

[Because this is hopeless.] Marco was now completely crow. [See, I'm willing to bet that Elfangor's disk will wipe itself if we fuck up the last attempt. And, last time I checked, we have no idea what the password is. And the only dude around who did was literally torn apart.]

He flapped his wings and landed in a tree over our heads. [Which means our only means of knowing our enemy would best be used as a paperweight.]

The others watched me. Waiting for me to argue with Marco again.

But, he was right.

"We'll find another way," I said weakly.

[No. We'll die.]

"Coward," Rachel muttered.

[Realist] Marco corrected. He spread his wings. [Call me when we figure out how to keep our families safe. Until then, I'm out.]

And then he was gone.

I looked over at the others. Rachel was glaring at me. But Tobias was morphing, too. [I'm sorry, guys] he told us, [but I'm with Marco on this. We're just kids. This is too big for us.]

He flew away. I turned to Cassie. Cassie looked from me to Rachel.

She sighed. "When you two have a plan, you know where to find me."

Then, she morphed crow and left us.

Rachel started morphing, too. But, instead of feathers, she was growing fur.

[We should hide the disk] she told me. [Until we figure out what to do with it.]

I nodded in agreement, and started my own morph.

Some leader I turned out to be


	16. Chapter 16 - The Mall

Saturday night. Family time. Dinner and a movie at the mall.

Dinner, as always, was pizza. It was my parents' turn to buy. Poppy's Pizza, located just inside the food court, was one of my favorite places in the world. They made the best pizza on the planet, hands down.

Not that I've had all the pizzas on the planet. But, still.

Tom and I had our usual pizza eating contest. Rachel and Jordan bounced between giving us disgusted looks, and checking out guys who walked in and out of the food court. Mom and Uncle Paul traded insults across the table. And Dad sat at the end of the table, sipping a Coke and watching us all with a small smile.

The movie was Star Wars. The first one. I guess the theatre didn't have enough clout to show any new releases, because all this one showed was old, classic movies and the occasional, limited-release anime. Marco, Tom, and I tried to catch the latter whenever we could, but for family outings, we stuck with actual movies.

I relaxed in my chair and watched Luke and Obi-Wan size up the aliens in the Mos Eisley cantina. No Hork-Bajir. No fat, hulking worms fighting to eat each other. Just puppets and guys in costumes.

After we left the theater, we entered the third act of family time: hitting the 'rents up for money. Tom needed new jeans. Marco and I were growing bored with my current library of video games, so I needed to get something new. Rachel and Jordan wanted to hit Spencer's. We were each handed twenty dollars and told to call Uncle Paul when we were ready to go home. Our parents cut us loose and left.

"And no more screwing around in Deathburg!" Uncle Paul shouted after us. I thought about saying something witty, but Uncle Paul had seen somebody he knew and was already talking to them. Rachel rolled her eyes and ran off with Jordan. Tom went walking towards the JC Penny. I stuck my twenty in my pocket and went looking for Gamestop.

There wasn't a whole lot you could get at Gamestop for less than twenty bucks, but I was determined. I went to the nearest shelf of used games and scanned it.

Oops. This was the Playstation section. I had an Xbox. I found the appropriate shelf and resumed my search.

Jackpot. A used copy of Resident Evil 5, re-released for the current system and marked down to $10.99. Affordable, co-op, and adult-oriented. I grabbed it, walked over to the check-out counter, and hoped the clerk wouldn't notice the M-rating. He didn't. I took my prize and went to find Tom.

I caught him as he was leaving the JC Penny. Tom frowned when I showed him my new game. "You know that's considered one of the worst of the series, right?"

I looked at it. "What, because of the girl?"

"No. The AI is garbage."

"Oh." I put the game back in its bag. "Should I take it back?"

Tom dug into his pocket and pulled out a five and a wad of ones. "Tell you what. If we can find a copy of the newest one, I'll help you pay for it."

"Isn't that singleplayer, though?"

"Yeah," Tom said as he put his money away, "but I've watched playthroughs on YouTube. It's entertaining."

"Okay. Let's grab Rachel and Jordan, first."

Tom and I made our way over to Spencer's. It was getting late, and close to closing time. People were already moving towards the main exit of the mall. I could see various store employees pulling down metal gates from the ceiling and locking them in place. We'd have to hurry if I wanted to go back to Gamestop.

We found our cousins browsing a table at the store entrance. Jordan held up some sort of knickknack and showed it to Rachel. I heard Rachel laugh. Tom and I walked up to them.

"You guys done?"

"No." Rachel jerked her thumb towards the back of the store. "We're waiting on the manager. He's trying to find us some more Lizzo merch."

Jordan checked her phone for the time. "And he's taking _forever_."

_Don't really have time for this_. "I'll go look for him," I volunteered. I walked around the table and towards the counter in the back of the store. No one there. There was a closed door to the left. I tried it. Locked.

"Jake, look out!"

Out of the corner of my right eye I saw a hand coming around from behind me, too fast for me to react. It looped under my jaw and around my throat, and pressed me against something warm. I felt something hard and metal press against the left side of my head.

"Don't fight."

A male voice. I pulled at his arm and struggled to look behind me. I managed to grab a look at his face, and was surprised to find someone I recognized.

It was the guy who had been talking to Uncle Paul outside the theatre!

Movement in front of me. I saw Rachel shove Jordan out into the mall, heard her shout at Jordan to get help. I saw Jordan take off. Tom vaulted over the table and ran for the guy, fist cocked back to throw a punch. Rachel wasn't far behind him.

I felt the metal move from the side of my head. My attacker extended his left arm. He was holding what looked like a Maglite with the plastic crosshairs of a Nerf gun glued on top. It would have been funny if he weren't holding me hostage.

The end of the Maglite glowed. A red beam of light, practically a laser, erupted from the end.

The light pierced Tom's chest.

And Tom disintegrated right before my eyes.


	17. Chapter 17 - The Controller

My whole body went numb, and I felt myself go limp. I felt the guy half-carry, half-drag me backwards. His hands felt fuzzy. Like television static.

Rachel stopped, instantly. The guy pointed the Maglite at her. "Don't play hero, girl. This Dracon beam more than capable of cutting you down."

My brother was dead. Murdered. Reduced to ash right in front of me. Gone forever.

"Walk over here. No fussing, now."

Rachel obeyed, keeping her hands held up in front of her. "Randy, right?" she snarled. "You work with my dad?"

"Yes," Randy said with a grin. "Very talkative, Paul is. Told me he caught you to setting off fireworks in Deathburg the other week." He pressed the Maglite (no, Dracon beam) back against my head and said, "Tell me, children. How did it feel to see a real, live alien?"

He was a Controller. A Yeerk.

A Yeerk killed Tom.

"We don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me, girl," Randy told Rachel. "You were seen, and we know Elfangor gave you his disk. You'll be telling us where it is, shortly. Now, come."

Randy directed Rachel towards the door in the back of the Spencer's. He told Rachel to stop at the door. With the arm wrapped across my throat, he fumbled in his shirt pocket. I heard jingling as he withdrew a ring of keys. They looked familiar. With a flick of his wrist, Randy tossed the keys towards Rachel. She caught them and dropped them. Instantly, Randy brought his weapon back up against my temple.

"Pick them up," he said to her. "Quickly!"

Rachel obediently picked up the keys. They had landed in a small pile of ash. I figured out where the Spencer's clerk went. "Silver key," Randy snapped. "Open the door."

With trembling hands, Rachel unlocked the door. Randy ushered us through, into what could only be the mall's maintenance halls. "Lock it," Randy ordered. After Rachel did, Randy shoved me out in front of him and pointed his weapon at us. "Now. Start walking."

"Where?" Rachel asked.

Randy fired. Another rod of energy shot past Rachel's head and burned a hole in the ceiling. We both flinched. "Stop stalling," Randy said, "and move."

We did. Rachel and I walked down the hallway, passing doors on either side of us.

What else could we do? Randy kept himself far enough away from us that we couldn't rush him, but close enough that he could cut us down easily if we made a break for it. Even if we tried morphing, we wouldn't be able to turn into crows and fly away before we were incinerated. Randy would kill us if we did anything other than what he told us to.

Like the Spencer's manager.

And Tom.

At least Jordan got away, I thought to myself. Maybe she'd even be able to find help.

But, what would she say? A man lasered one of her cousins and kidnapped her sister and other cousin? Who would believe her?

A jolt went through me. I knew. I knew exactly who would believe her. People like Randy. People who would know what sorts of people carried around flashlights that could disintegrate people. People who would hear of kids being grounded for setting off fireworks in Deathburg the other week, and figure out those same kids must have seen the Andalite who crash-landed there around that time.

Yeerks.

The Yeerks had found us. Just like Marco said they would. I had ignored him, and called him paranoid. And now, Tom was dead, and my cousins and I soon would be.

The hallway ended at another door. Randy had us open it. Outside was a bright red sedan.

Randy pulled an electronic car key out of his pocket. He pressed and held a button. After a few seconds, the sedan's trunk popped open. He pointed the Dracon beam at Rachel. "Get in."

Rachel just glared at him. Randy pointed the flashlight at me. "Get in."

Rachel climbed into the trunk. "Close it," Randy told me. I walked over to the trunk and looked down at Rachel. We shared a look as I sealed her inside. As I did, Randy opened the driver's passenger door. "In," he ordered.

I climbed inside. He closed the door, and I briefly considered locking them. But I doubted the windows were Dracon-proof, and even if they were, Randy had the keys. So, I just sat, and did nothing, as Randy got into the driver's seat.

He started the car and drove one-handed out towards the street, keeping his Dracon beam trained on me the entire time. I heard Rachel shifting in the trunk behind us.

And we were caught. Just like that.

Randy pulled out of the parking lot and merged with traffic. We stopped at a red light and I heard him breathe a sigh of relief. "I can't believe that worked," he muttered. He looked over at me. "What'd you say your name was? Jake?"

I said nothing. Randy kept talking. "I'm pretty sure it was Jake. And the other one is...Rachel? Tell me. Who else was with you in Deathburg?"

I turned away and glared out the window. Randy laughed. "Fine. Resist all you like. We'll find out soon enough."

"I won't tell you anything, Yeerk."

The words flew from my mouth without warning. I didn't know why I said them. This man, this creature, was driving my cousin and I off to our deaths. Why was I fighting him?

Shouldn't I be telling him everything? Maybe if I did, he'd spare us and our friends. Elfangor said the Yeerks were here to conquer humanity, not kill us.

Guess I was braver than I thought.

Regardless, Randy laughed again. "So. The Andalite _did_ tell you about us. Too bad for you it didn't help."

Then, the light turned green, and we were off.

We spent several minutes driving across town. After a while, I asked, "Where are we going?"

Randy didn't answer for a minute. Finally, he said, "I guess there's no harm in telling you. You'll be ours by sunrise, either way. We're going to the Pool."

"The what?"

"The Pool," Randy said. "I'm taking you to my commander. Sub-Visser Eight."

"The Hork-Bajir."

"Visser Three was very unhappy when the Sub-Visser let you get away. He threatened to take his host from him. Sub-Visser Eight has devoted himself to finding you kids." Randy grinned. "When I turn you two over to him, he's sure to give me a big reward."

"What kind of reward?" I asked.

"Hopefully a promotion," Randy answered. "Maybe even a Hork-Bajir of my very own!"

"And what about us?"

"You'll be infested," Randy said. "You'll be given to one of our people. They'll tell the Sub-Visser everything you know, and then he'll decide whether you're a useful enough host to keep."

I gulped. "If I'm not?"

"You'll be disposed of." Randy pulled to a stop. "We're here. Don't move."

I looked up. To my surprise, I could recognize the decrepit ruins of Deathburg. We were parked in the parking lot, just outside of what would have been the main entrance of a mall.

Didn't he say we were going to a pool?

[Jake.]

I blinked. [Rachel?]

[What's going on? Where are we?]

[Back at the construction site.]

Pause. [Why?]

[Does it really matter?]

Randy got out and walked around the front of the car. All the while, his Dracon beam never stopped pointing at me. He opened the passenger door and said, "Out."

Randy carefully stepped out of my reach as I climbed out of the car. Once again, he made sure that he stayed too far away for me to rush him. He motioned towards the front of the car. "Stand there."

[Okay. Okay.] I heard Rachel sigh in my head. [I think I can get us out of this.]

[You do?]

Randy went behind his car and stood three steps away from it. He held the Dracon beam up with one hand and pointed it at the trunk.

[What's he doing, Jake?]

[He's standing behind the car] I said. [He's got his gun pointed at you. What are you planning?]

"If you try to run," Randy said to me, "I'll fry her."

[Follow my lead.]

[Wait! Rachel!]

"Alright, Rachel, come out. Nice and easy."

Randy held up his key and opened the trunk.

And took sixty pounds of malinois to the face.


	18. Chapter 18 - The Realization

Randy was fast. He fired his weapon as soon as Rachel was in the air.

But it wasn't good enough. The beam flew harmlessly over the car and a full two feet past me.

And with a growl that aspired to be a roar, Rachel landed on top of him and drove him onto the asphalt.

Did you know that malinois dogs are used by military and police forces all across the world? They're utilized as bomb dogs, as well as for search and rescue, but they also make exceptional attack dogs. They can sprint almost thirty miles per hour and drop someone as big as Dwayne Johnson.

I ran to help Rachel as soon as Randy hit the ground.

Rachel went for Randy's throat, but wound up grabbing him by the jaw instead. Undeterred, she bit down and started shaking him. He started screaming.

I saw Randy's arm bring the Dracon beam up and ram it into Rachel's ribs. On impulse, I kicked the side of his wrist. His elbow bounced off the ground and the weapon went flying. I went for it.

Randy got his arms under Rachel's back legs and lifted her up. Dogs can be powerful, but they can't fight physics. She yelped in surprise as Randy flipped her ass over teakettle and landed hard on her back. He rolled onto his hands and knees, face covered in blood.

Rachel got her legs back under her and charged him again. Randy backhanded her, then stood up and kicked her. Hard. I heard something snap, and Rachel yelped again. I grabbed the Dracon beam and pointed it at Randy.

"Stop!"

Randy looked over at me. Blood oozed from long gouges across his cheeks. He saw me holding the laser and laughed. At his feet, Rachel laid on her side and whined. "Do you even know how to use that, human?"

I glanced down at the laser. Where the switch for a flashlight would be, there was a sliding knob. It was in position towards the business end of the weapon. Symbols ran down the length of the laser, and near my index finger underneath it, I could feel something that felt like a trigger.

I aimed to Randy's right and pulled the trigger. A red beam of energy melted the asphalt. Randy held his hands up and stepped away from Rachel.

Rachel started demorphing. Randy backed further away, surprised.

"That's impossible," Randy said. "Andalites are supposed to be the only race in the galaxy with morphing technology. And our spies said your people were barely capable of spaceflight. You're nowhere near advanced enough to have developed morphing technology on your own. Unless…"

Human once more, Rachel stood up and silently walked to the back of Randy's car. She pulled her clothes out of the trunk and started dressing herself. I kept the Dracon beam trained on Randy.

"So," Randy said. He tried to grin, and grimaced. "Elfangor managed to escape with an Escafil device. Sub-Visser Eight suspected he had. But no one dreamed he'd use it on any humans! Let alone human children."

Rachel, now fully clothed, came to stand next to me. "Did the Andalite tell you to fight us?" Randy asked. "Did Prince Elfangor arm you and tell you to drive us off your planet?" He laughed. "No. Don't answer. I know he did. What else could he do to stop us?"

Randy gave us a grisly sneer. "Listen to me, children. This planet will complete one full orbit of your sun before the Andalites get anywhere near the system," he told us. "One full year. Minimum. We will control this world well before then. And the Andalites know it.

"That's why the Andalite gave you your power. You're not supposed to fight us. You're supposed to die trying to slow us down.

"You're best option," Randy continued, "is to surrender yourselves to me and let me bring you to Sub-Visser Eight. Morph-capable bodies like yours are almost impossible to secure. Every Andalite we've ever captured managed to sacrifice themselves before we infested them. The Sub-Visser will not hesitate to spare you. You, and your friends, will be allowed to live as hosts for my fellow Yeerks. He might even let me have you. My host will be useless after tonight.

"You can't fight an army, children," Randy finished. "You will die fighting for a lost cause. Save yourselves, and live out your lives as soldiers of the Yeerk Empire."

I looked at Rachel. Rachel looked at me.

The Yeerk was probably right. I mean...we were all still kids. Teenagers, barely halfway through high school. Marco, witty but scared out of his mind. Cassie, who liked animals more than people. Tobias, a bully magnet.

Me, who had almost lost the war before it even started.

And Rachel.

Two weeks ago, to me, Rachel was just my cousin. Close family, but at best, she was the most prideful collection of daddy issues this side of the Rockies.

Something had changed. As I looked into Rachel's eyes, I realized, she wasn't just some rebellious teen anymore. My savage of a cousin found herself between a rock and a hard place, with a gun to her head in every way but literally, and chose to go down swinging.

At some point since the Andalite landed, after Elfangor told us our world was in danger and gave us the means to fight, my cousin Rachel had turned into a fighter. She had refused to give in, and though doing so, had saved us all.

Now, Rachel was a warrior, ready to fight and kill to protect herself and her loved ones. And, God help me, I realized that I had to be, too. For Rachel. For Marco and Cassie. For my mom and dad, and Jordan and Uncle Paul. Even Tobias.

And Tom.

We looked back at Randy. Rachel shook her head. "Thanks. But, we'll take our chances."

Randy's pained smile disappeared. I felt hot, angry tears in my eyes as I aimed the Dracon beam at his torso.

"And you murdered my brother."

The beam pierced his chest and flew out his back. Randy went up in smoke. I turned around and hurled the Dracon beam as far into the night as I could.

Then, I plopped down on the ground and cried.


	19. Chapter 19 - The Animorphs

As it turned out, Jordan didn't go running for help. She called Uncle Paul. Uncle Paul had gotten half the cops in town looking for us before Rachel and I felt it was safe enough to call him.

We told him that Randy was a pervert. He had made us strip our clothes off, and locked us both in the trunk and run off with Tom. Rachel found the interior latch for the trunk. We paused just long enough to throw on pants before we ran for our lives.

It was close enough to the truth. Rachel ran with our jeans to the school, while I flew overhead scouting for trouble.

They found Randy's car. And the rest of our clothes. They never found him or Tom.

We called the others next, and told them to lay low for a while. To skip school. It was possible that the Yeerks would put two and two together, and link the disappearance of one of their own to Rachel, me, and our friends. We figured we'd be harder to grab at home than in public. Fortunately, they all agreed.

It was easy enough for Rachel and I to take off school. We were the traumatized kidnappees.

Rachel sent Cassie a bullshit thread of texts asking her if Cassie could spend the week with her, because she "didn't want to be alone."

Tobias just refused to go to school. He told his grandmother he was scared someone would take him, too. I wasn't sure he was lying.

Marco took time off for mourning. I knew that was real; he'd been close with Tom, too.

Nothing happened. Nobody was watching our houses. Nobody came asking for us. No one kicked in our doors and killed us with Dracon Beams. And, after we finally ventured out into the open, no one hassled us.

But, after Tom, it was decided that none of us would be caught outside alone. We all started shadowing each other. Even Marco and Tobias grouped up.

And we trusted no one we talked to.

Mom was the DA. She knew as well as Uncle Tom did what it meant if a kid was missing for too long. She held out for a week before accepting Tom was gone.

Dad was a wreck. There was a while where he would randomly hug me. I let him.

Eventually, we held a funeral at our church. Coach Harkness and the entire basketball team showed up. Some other kids, too. Even Cassie and Tobias came. Our preacher said some words. Dad, Uncle Paul, Marco and I took our places as pallbearers. And we lowered an empty coffin into Tom's grave.

Afterward, at the reception, I pulled everyone aside and took them into the sanctuary. We settled in the pews.

"We have to fight."

Rachel nodded. But no one else reacted. I took a breath and continued.

"Not for Tom. I'm not vengeful. At least," I took another breath, "I don't think I am. I just…this shouldn't have happened."

Cassie was leaning over the back of the pew in front of me. "This wasn't your fault, Jake."

"I know," I told her. "But, this isn't going away. The Yeerks are here. And they'll keep coming, whether we ignore them or not. They'll keep enslaving people. And…"

"And murdering whomever they can't," Rachel finished for me.

"Right." I swallowed. "The point is, our planet is under attack. And every day we don't try to do something about it, there will be more people like Tom. More broken families like mine and Rachel's. And after Tom, I don't think I'll be able to go through life knowing that.

"So I'm going to do what I can to fight," I finished. "And…and I don't want to have to do it alone."

Cassie leaned forward and grabbed my hands. She held them firmly in hers and looked directly into my eyes. "You're not alone, Jake."

Rachel, sitting next to me, reached past me and put a hand on top of Cassie's. "I've got your back, Jake. Let's do this."

Tobias, next to Cassie, placed a hand over Rachel's. "We're the Avengers, man. We got aliens to fight."

"No."

Marco was on my left. He was looking down at our hands. Frowning.

"No?" Rachel sounded like she wanted to punch him.

"No," Marco repeated. He held a hand. Hesitated.

Then, he locked eyes with me, and slapped his hand down.

"We're the Animorphs," Marco said.

We sat like that, for a moment. Awkwardly holding each other's hands.

"That's dumb," Rachel told Marco.

"Animal morphers," Marco explained.

"I like it," Cassie said.

Tobias shrugged. "I can live with it."

"Me, too," I said.

We all stood up and started making our way back to the reception. I mouthed the word silently, trying it out.

_Animorphs_.

Yes. That would do nicely.


	20. Afterword

I'm actually quite proud of myself. This is the first full-length story I've ever finished.

Over twenty-eight thousand words. I think my record before this was a WoW story that topped out around fourteen thousand. I wrote that in 2010.

Go me!

Anyways, I gotta say, I kind of struggled with this. The Invasion, much like the rest of series itself, was written to be a ninety-page story meant to entertain elementary schoolkids. I first read it when I was seven. I loved it. But, rereading it as an adult, I found it to be outdated and, as far as the last half goes, convenient for the characters. I found myself wondering what the book would look like if it took place outside of a major city in 2020, as opposed to the mid-90s Bay Area.

I decided that the kids would have severely limited access to morphs. No tigers or elephants right out the gate. That the most dangerous things they'd find were dogs and rattlesnakes. That the most inconspicuous bird morph they could find would be crows. And that everyone should be teeange shitheads, instead of preteen shitheads. And, while we're at it, let's change up the dynamics of their families a bit.

So I started writing it. Then I dropped it, and picked it back up. And now, I've finished it.

That's pretty fucking cool.

I've already started outlining my version of The Visitor. Much like my version of The Invasion, it'll loosely follow the same plot, with different morphs. I'm thinking spiders instead of a cat. Or something. It'll still be from Rachel's viewpoint.

I plan on doing the entire series, actually. For funsies, if nothing else. I liked doing this one, and I'm interested in seeing how much mileage I can get.

Anyways, if you read all the way through, let me know what you thought. I'm always trying to improve.

\-- Zard


End file.
